How Many Wonders Can One Cavern Hold?
by imagine.believe
Summary: Gwen sees what others do not. Allen sees no reason why sea is forbidden. Neil finds solace in spending time near the sea. Reine finds life in court suffocating. When the four destinies collides, crossing over the wall separating the two worlds, what kind of adventure awaits them? Will they uncover the deepest secret linking their fates? Second of Disney series! Picture: Adimono :)
1. One Vision, Two Kingdoms, Four Destinies

_Hey guys, so now we meet in another realm of my story... welcome! ^^_

_If you have read the other Disney series I wrote (which is ending soon), Tale As Old As Time, you will realize that TAOAT is a rendition of Beauty and The Beast. However, this story will not exactly be a rendition. Instead, this story will be sort of the second sequel of Little Mermaid (yeah, they got a prequel and sequel already... and now, another sequel)._

_Disclaimer: I do not own HM or Disney._

_In any case, thanks for deciding to give this story a shot and I hope you will like it! ^^_

* * *

_The trident glowed, but not in the hand of the descendant of the King. A human. A male human._

Her blue eyes opened and the vision receded. A mermaid came in, "Princess Guinevere, your presence is needed in the Throne Room."

The mermaid nodded and followed the attendant towards the Throne Room, where an old merman with imposing figure and silvery hair due to his advanced age sat on the golden throne of Atlantica. The golden crown shone on his head; his was indeed the most majestic figure throughout the underwater kingdom. Gwen faced her grandfather and bowed politely, "What could I do for Your Majesty?"

"Tell me, granddaughter," the King began, "Have you had any vision for our kingdom?"

Gwen looked up, her deep blue eyes staring directly at the King's gray eyes, and said with a tone of conviction, "No."

"I would have informed the Throne if such vision does occur."

The King's face relaxed into a smile, "Ah, yes, of course… it is not that I do not trust you." He said, "It is just that… you have not been out for days."

"I will come out when I find a need for it." Gwen asserted calmly.

"Yes, yes," the old merman quickly responded, "Of course, you are like your late father that way."

Having none of the nostalgic atmosphere, Gwen bowed her head again. "It seems my presence here is no longer relevant."

The princess turned around and exited the Throne Room with no other word being uttered from her small mouth, leaving everyone she left behind—even the King himself—stunned momentarily by her cold detachment.

* * *

Allen gazed at the wall that separated his seaside castle from the sea. It was reasoned that the wall was some sort of breakwater, but Allen had always felt that there was more to the wall than being a breakwater.

_It's way too close to the shore, _he thought to himself.

"Why are you keep staring at the beach, son? There is nothing there."

Allen turned and found his mother walked calmly towards where he stood. Allen shrugged, "Of course there won't be anything, dear mother, for the wall separates us."

"I don't understand: the wall, never a voyage although it can be faster sometimes… I _can_ swim, mother!"

The Princess Dowager stroke her son's dark red hair lovingly with an empathetic smile, "Oh, yes, I know you can swim very well." She said, "but your grandmother loves you too much that she cannot bear the thought of losing you after she lost your father."

Allen's mind flew towards his grandmother, the Queen Consort, who could be pleasant and unbelievably strict at the same time. Allen had heard about the deadly voyage that had claimed the lives of his father, Prince Eric Jr, as well as his aunt, Princess Melody. It happened when he himself was only four years old, so he didn't really know all the detail, but he knew that the wall was indeed built after the incident.

"It had been fourteen years since then, Mother," Allen complained, "Isn't it time to move on already?"

The Princess Dowager smiled understandingly at her son. Blood was hard to resist; after all, King Eric had always been known to be an avid mariner and, although this was concealed from Prince Allen as well as all the younger staff of the kingdom, Queen Ariel's mermaid lineage surely played a part in the Royal Family's affinity for the sea.

Even after decades had passed.

* * *

Neil decided to spend some time at the beach before going back to the castle for he was sure that the butler wouldn't even notice that he was gone for too long. Last year, he had found a large hole in the wall, big enough for an adult man like him to pass. Ever since then, Neil found himself spending his free time dipping his feet into the seawater. It was even better when he found an abandoned, but fully functional small rowboat stranded a few months ago. Neil stored the ship at a stranded shack nearby and when time was unbearably bad, he would just set off for a quick getaway to the sea. Rowing was a good exercise for his arms, too, anyway.

He felt completely at ease when he was near the sea but he wasn't sure why; it could be for the fact that there was nobody else (some time free of nagging and impossible orders), or it could also be the way the sound of waves crashing to the beach (or the wall, for that matter) seemed to have a calming effect in his ears.

Neil was walking to his secret spot when he found, much to his shock, that there was something stranded on the beach. He burst into a sprint on the sand, approaching the poor creature. It wasn't often that a sea animal could be stranded given the stretch of the wall that barricaded the castle from the sea, much less an unusual pink dolphin. To his best knowledge, pink dolphins only lived in a certain kingdom in East Asia, but that was the least of his concern at that time.

Neil bent down and checked for the dolphin's vitals—and much to his delight it was still alive although visibly distressed.

"We'll get you back to where you belong, okay?" Neil assured the dolphin gently, a side he showed much more often to animals rather than humans.

Neil tried to dig the sand around the dolphin to allow water to seep through, and after some time digging around the dolphin, there was enough water for the creature to swim back to the ocean. The pink dolphin suddenly raised its head and pecked his cheek, an action that elicited a small laugh from the usually gruff and taciturn servant boy. "Yeah, yeah, you're welcome."

Neil never told anyone since he thought it was strange himself, but sometimes he found animals to be easier to understand than humans.

* * *

Reine swam frantically to the surface. There was an unusually strong wave just now, and given Vivienne's notorious lack of sense of direction (ironically so, since she was a dolphin), she was gravely worried that she was lost, or even stranded on the beach.

Her annoying governess, Marissa, was against her decision to look for Vivienne ("King Troanes would be very much displeased with your conduct!"), but she had never cared much about her grandfather in the first place, so it was a harmless threat.

When Reine was about to reach the surface, she saw a figure swimming in high speed towards her, and when Reine recognized the pink figure she rushed to her and hugged her, "Viv! You are such a nuisance! What if you're stranded on the beach, you blank dolphin?!"

"As a matter of fact, I was," the pink dolphin admitted sheepishly, before quickly adding, "but someone saved me! A human—and a good-looking one at that! He is _soooo_ dreamy~"

Reine raised her eyebrow, "Hey, don't tell me you're hitting on a human now?"

"I'm a dolphin—can't help it!"

Reine rolled her eyes but smiled, anyway. "Let's go back." She said, "and let's think what prank to trap Marissa with after this—she will sure give me a mouthful about this, so better make it worthwhile."

"We can always make a quick stop to the squiddies~"

The two friends giggled, and swam back to the deeper sea, where another kingdom lied waiting for them.

* * *

_One vision. Two kingdoms. Four destinies._

_This is where the story starts._

_Thanks for reading!_

_Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: just as clarification yes, Allen is Ariel's grandson (both has red hair and blue eyes, if you notice), born from her son which is also Melody's little brother (Melody is the protagonist for the official sequel of Little Mermaid for those who are not familiar with it). Although this makes this story sort-of crossover with the real Disney franchise, I decided not to put it under crossover section because it will be too troublesome to find. Besides, the characters from Disney (Ariel and Eric) will make very little appearance, that much I can tell, so I guess this can be largely classified under HM AU, still._**


	2. The Princess and The Servant Boy

_Hey guys, thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you found the intro to be interesting! ^^_

_Chris Shino: her reason will be explained later (not in this chapter), but I can tell you it's not that she's enjoyed lying. _

_teamBLAZE: yeah! I think it's interesting to make Neil a servant boy sometimes :P_

_ToOH: Well, I have plans on doing Mulan (but wondering whether I should change the names into more Chinese-sounding or keep it as it is), but let's see how it goes first. I do think of doing stories on other fandoms, but I don't have the inspiration yet. Maybe someday ^^_

* * *

Reine begrudgingly let the maids decorate her for the day. One maid put the dress around her waist and tied it securely before she fixed the ruffles on the skirt while another fastened pearl clips onto her hair.

Two pearls bracelets were placed around her tail, much to her protest, "This is the latest fashion, Princess Renaissance," Marissa the governess, who stood guard at the princess' room (since she knew that Reine would give a lot of trouble as compared to her elder sisters), "You must keep up."

"Stupid fashion!" Reine grunted as she tried to sway her tails—and it was heavier thanks to the pearls, not to mention the discomfort since the dress was poking to her tail.

Reine stared at the reflection on the mirror; it was an exaggeration, still, but she felt that she was being buried under these pearls on her body, plus her silver tiara.

Among the court officials, Reine was known to be a vivacious princess, yet they were not aware that she was not really a party-mermaid. However, Reine did love the parties her grandfather hosted… just not for the reasons one might really think.

Just like always, Reine hoped her darling dolphin would not get lost in today's party and completed her mission A.S.A.P. before she was overcome by the urge to tear the itchy dress before the guests.

Reine swam lazily out from her room and found her elder sisters, all already prepared for today's party. "As always, Reine, you're the last," the eldest princess, Therese, chided gently.

Reine shrugged, "I'm the youngest, anyway," she quipped.

Therese sighed heavily. Being the last princess, Reine surely knew how to have the last word in this kind of argument.

"Anyway~ we have to go soon!" the third princess, Celeste, reminded them, which was quickly seconded by her twin, Selene, "Yes, the guests are already waiting!"

The six mermaids then glided gracefully towards the party hall. When the guards in front of the grand door noticed Therese, who was leading the party, they immediately stood at attention and opened the door for the six princesses.

As always, Reine could hear the voice of the party's master of ceremony (whoever it was this time) boomed through the hall, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, the Six Princesses!"

The guests stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look at arguably the King's most cherished treasure: his granddaughters. However, they were always short of one.

She always came with a different party, indeed, and Reine knew today she would come although it would only be a good five minutes before she retreated back to her own chamber.

True enough, the door was opened again and a line of attendants glided gracefully, and this time the master of ceremony announced, "Please welcome, The Princess-Seeress!"

The blue-tailed and blue-haired mermaid came in last, the lower half of her face covered with a thin veil. Just like her sisters, her head was adorned with a silver tiara and array of pearls, and they wore matching dresses—only differentiated by their colours that matched the colour of their individual tail. However, there was a vast difference in the way she carried herself; in addition to grace, there was always a sense of mystery that lurked about her, simply because she was the Seeress—the maid granted with the Eyes of Helenus.

It was rumoured that her family was descended from Helenus, the twin brother of the prophet Cassandra. Unlike his poor twin sister, however, his prediction was never regarded as a proof of lunacy. Helenus fell in love with a mermaid and they had an offspring together, a mermaid who inherited Helenus' ability to foresee the future and ever since then, one mermaid from each generation of this family—known as the House of Helenian among the merfolk—would be born with this ability, and in Reine's generation, it was her elder sister, Guinevere Helenian.

Reine remembered that it wasn't apparent at first. They had the closest age gap and shared their rooms when they were younger, and things had been very different then. Reine remembered it started with lucid dreams—Gwen told her about them sometimes—which turned out to be reality in a few days. Slowly, these dreams began to appear during daytimes, and shortly after their father's disappearance, the King, their grandfather, identified Gwen as the Seeress and moved her chamber to a private chamber.

Ever since then, Reine could only see Gwen briefly in occasions where the Seeress was obligated to make her appearance, usually prescribed by the King. Even then, Gwen would stay as briefly as possible, before retreating back to her chamber as if it was her sanctuary. Reine knew, however, that the King had occasionally summoned Gwen to the Throne Room and asked her the same, boring question: "Have you had any vision for our kingdom?"

It was only then Reine saw Viv peeking through the window and Reine stealthily excused herself from the party hall and met up with the pink dolphin, who carried a tied sack with her. "Mission complete!" Viv said, which was met with Reine's grin. "Great!"

Reine quickly took off her party ornaments and hid them in the nearby seaweed bush before the two friends slipped out from the palace, to the border of Atlantica. A group of merchildren noticed their coming and cheered excitedly, "Reine's coming! Reine's coming!"

Reine was quickly surrounded by the excited merchildren. "Hey, guys!"

She then noticed Mika, one of the children whom she had grown quite close to. The girl smiled shyly, "Hello, Reine…"

Reine opened the sack, and as expected, Viv managed to snatch some of the excess food from the palace's kitchen. "Share it among yourselves," Reine said, giving the sack to the merchildren. They cheered loudly as the dug into the food, "You're the best, Reine!"

The merchildren quickly enjoyed the treats that Reine brought. "How did you manage to get this?" one of them asked innocently, staring into Reine's scarlet eyes. "This looks… expensive."

The question threw Reine off-guard for a moment, but she quickly countered it by saying, "You won't enjoy the food if you're thinking about that!"

The merchild laughed heartily, "You're right!" and then the conversation was simply dropped like that.

* * *

Neil was enjoying his short break at the back of the castle, alone, when someone sneaked up on him. With trained reflexes, Neil reached for his short sword but sighed in exasperation when he saw the red-headed prince grinning at him. "Found you."

"Geez!" Neil scowled. "What's it?"

Neil and Prince Allen were about the same age, and when Prince Eric Jr was still around, Neil used to be his errand boy—which in one way or another put him in close contact with the prince. Their personalities were contrastingly different, but since Neil often spent his time in Prince Eric's quarters, which happened to be where Allen often spent his time, too, they used to play together quite often.

Although ever since the Prince's death Neil had been assigned to do other tasks and so lessened his interaction with Allen, and sometimes Allen's attitude could rub him off the wrong way, Neil knew that Allen was a good person at heart and so kept up with it.

"I know you've been going to the beach~" he said teasingly.

"Wha—no!"

"So how did you wet your pants, Neil?" Allen asked with a twinkle in his blue eyes.

"The way you asked it… urgh! Fine, yes!"

Allen laughed, but he quickly got back to the main focus. "How did you get into the water?"

Neil eyed Allen carefully. "Will you report me to Her Majesty?"

"Ha? Of course not!" Allen replied almost immediately, "What do you think I am? Friend-stabber? Even when a sexy lady is in question I would not even do that!"

"Okay, Fine. I got the idea." Neil then proceeded to tell him about the hole he had found, but not telling him anything about the boat.

"You found that last year? You slick rascal!" Allen laughed, "Take me the next time you're going there!"

Neil shrugged. One less hiding place.

But at least he still got his boat.

That thought was quickly disrupted when another servant found him, "Neil, Her Majesty is looking for you!" the servant was surprised when he saw Allen there, however, and quickly bowed, "Y-Your Highness!"

Neil shot a menacing glare at Allen. "No! Trust me, I haven't seen Granny!"

He sighed, knowing that Allen wasn't lying. Besides, the Queen could ask for him for something else, although he did wonder why.

Neil quickly made his way and found the Queen sitting alone on the bench at the castle's garden. He bowed his head respectfully. "Your Majesty,"

"I saw you coming back from the sea the other day."

Neil held his breath. How could he be seen by more than one person—and his employer among others?!

"You do know that there is an order declaring that the sea is off-limit, right?"

Neil kept his mouth shut, but the guilty look on his face didn't pass the Queen's sharp eyes. "That includes you, Neil. And I expect you to follow it."

Neil had so many things he wanted to tell the Queen. How could he follow such instruction if his job included picking up things from the market which included a walk through the beach? Surely he couldn't tell the butler that the Queen prohibited him from going near the sea! The fact that he used to be Prince Eric's errand boy had already caused several tension with the other servants, especially the more senior ones—they thought there was something more behind the reason why Neil was hand-picked to be Prince Eric's errand boy right after his mother's death. He didn't want to add this 'preferential treatment' to feed their wild speculations. However, Neil found his mouth to shut tight before the presence of the Queen, and in the end, he simply nodded when the Queen dismissed him.

However, the first thing he did was actually to head to the house where he kept the boat and pushed it to the sea where he climbed in and started rowing to the sunset. Only when he could feel the gentle waves swayed his boat lightly where he was already rather far from the beach that his rage somewhat subsided.

Talk about impossible orders.

* * *

When Reine went back to the palace, much to her horror, Marissa was already standing guard at the gate with her arms crossed. "Where have you been, princess?"

"Errands." Reine replied simply.

"Errands? What errands? No princess does errands!" Marissa shot back, "Besides, your only duty is to entertain the guests—and what have you done?! You've escaped the party! What if the King learns about this?!"

Before Reine could defend herself, Marissa raised her hand and said, "Go back to your room, princess, and think the harm and shame you would have caused if this incident is leaked out!"

Marissa turned back and walked into the palace, leaving Reine flaming with her fury. Viv glanced at her friend worriedly, and as expected, instead going in to the palace, Reine dashed out from the palace once more, this time heading to the surface.

Reine leapt out from surface and her body bent gracefully above the water. It was a habit that her father had taught her to calm her temper down—leaping out from the water—and Reine found it to be rather useful at times. Plus, it made her the best jumper in her age now (so now you could guess how often Reine used this technique).

Reine opened her eyes when she felt that her body was about to fall back to the water. However, much to her shock, instead of the aerial view of the blue sea, she saw a boat—and a golden head.

Reine screamed in panic and Neil looked up, "Move out!"

Before Neil could react, the mermaid crashed down to the boat, rocking it furiously—and only after Neil's desperate efforts to stabilise the boat by spreading out his arms and legs the boat didn't capsize. However, that made Reine ended up right between his legs and top of his body—and she successfully drenched the man in water.

Neil looked up in shock when he saw a cascade of pink hair over his face, and a pair of scarlet eyes staring back at him. His breath came in a staccato rhythm as he tried to register what had just happened.

Reine awkwardly straightened her body and Neil could see her pink tail—with almost translucent, lighter pink fins.

"W… what are you?"

"Can't you see? I'm a mermaid!" Reine replied, her cheeks flushed red before she leaped back into the water but not before her tail slapped Neil on the face.

_How could there be a human there?! What happened to the wall?! _Reine asked herself furiously.

Neil was still left in shock after the tail-slap moment. He blinked his eyes several times before he finally began to register everything.

_A mer… what?! Pink dolphin, and now pink mermaid?! What's inside this sea, anyway?!_

* * *

_A brief encounter between the two rebellious spirits..._

_will this lead to something more?_

_Stay tuned to find out!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: what do you think of Neil-Reine first meeting in this story? :P_**


	3. Descending Into The Sea

_Hey guys, thanks for the heart-warming reviews! ^^ And welcome Mew-Star-Mew and Bunnies4ever2 ^^_

_Since 'voice' plays a major theme in The Little Mermaid, I decided that this time I should give the major characters a voice! Of course you are free to imagine how their voice are, but I will tell you who I have in mind for each character (especially for singing):_

_Allen: Zachary Levi (Flynn Rider)_

_Gwen: Mandy Moore (Rapunzel)_

_Reine: Charice (her song, New World, is the reason why I pick her to be Reine's voice)_

_Neil: HE IS THE HARDEST! I tried to find his voice the first but ended up to be the last *upset upset* in the end I think I'd say the nearest is... please don't laugh: Josh Groban. Yes, you read it right, Josh Groban and his Broken Vow (or You Raise Me Up or whichever song you remember him by). Like I say, finding Neil's voice is the hardest for me *sob*_

_In any case, the song used below is a modified version of Tangled's When Will My Life Begin_

_And yes, I will use any song I see fit although this is a so-called Little Mermaid sequel :P_

_I hope you enjoy it~_

* * *

Death was always a tricky thing. You knew it lurked nearby, but whether it accompanied you for some time before it took you away or it suddenly pounced on you like a hunter on its prey it always stopped your at the middle or something.

Many people thought that our story ended once our life ended, but this was not so. Our life might end, but our story never. It continued, but simply without us being physically present.

Likewise, Prince Eric Jr. missed a lot of things when his life was abruptly ended. One of them was his daughter who, at the time of the unfortunate accident, was still dwelling in the safe sanctuary of her mother's womb. The young princess grew up not knowing many things, including her own father, save for stories that she was told by the castle occupants. She, too, didn't have the same discontentment towards the wall or the longing for the sea like her brother, for as long as she had known, sea had always been a forbidden territory. At most, her interest towards the sea was still within the boundaries of the expected curiosity of a teenager.

The lack of fatherly figure in her life caused her to grow very attached to her brother, ten years her senior. She looked up to him, idolize him, even—and when she was very young she was almost like Allen's shadow, tailing him almost everywhere he went. Now, fourteen years old, she didn't really do that anymore although she often skipped happily towards him when he was around.

"Allen~" she hummed happily, "Will you braid my hair today, too?"

Allen smiled, "Sure, let's head to your room."

Arms linked, the two siblings headed to Alicia's room where she sat in front of her dressing table while Allen began to brush her hair carefully. Allen had an unexpected patience and diligence when it came to take care of as well as decorating someone's hair—especially when the hair in question was smooth and well cared for, just like Alicia's whose strawberry blonde hair glistened under the sunlight.

"Do you want it to be a bun, or a tail?"

"Bun!" She replied with a grin.

Allen smiled and he began parting her hair into locks and intertwining them carefully, forming half-a-crown on the left side of her head. "You have nice hair, as always,"

Alicia smiled, "I know you love my hair, so I keep it well!"

Allen laughed and he immersed himself in creating a circlet of braid on Alicia's head. With years of practice, it didn't take him long to finished the half crown. Allen held it fast with a pin and began to braid the other side when the door was knocked.

"Enter!" the princess replied.

"Princess,"

At the sound of his voice, Alicia glanced at the door and found Neil half-entering the room. She quickly turned away, but before Allen saw a faint blush on her reflection on the mirror. "Y-Yes?"

"Your mother has been looking for you."

"I… I see." Alicia stammered, "Um… please tell my mother I… I will find her as soon as I'm done."

"Yes."

With that, Neil quietly left the room.

Allen said nothing, but he quickly finished up his job on Alicia's hair.

He, too, had another person he wanted to see.

* * *

Gwen withdrew her hand from the merfolk sitting across her. "That's all I have to say."

The merfolk pulled his hand back before bowing respectfully. "Thank you, Princess-Seeress." He then glided out from the chamber specially made for this purpose and threw some gold coins inside of the box at the doorway.

Gwen saw it and sighed heavily.

_This is only a little bit more honourable than prostitution._ She thought to herself. As much as she detested it, she knew that the income from this small fortune telling that she could perform by touching the skin of the subject made up one-fifth of the treasury.

At least she was contributing something, although she couldn't really say she agreed to it.

Suddenly, her deep sapphire eyes turned black and her pet dolphin, a male silvery dolphin called Viserys immediately blocked the entrance to the chamber so that her mistress could have some privacy.

The dolphin went to his mistress' side when he saw her eyes turned blue again. "Anything I can get you?"

Gwen shook her head.

She saw it clearly. Those children of sea would come and brought the tide of change in the deepest of seas.

And it would happen soon.

* * *

Her voice held such power that the fishes would stop to listen alongside merfolks—even the sharks would swim in circles, but thought nothing of their prey, and listened to her singing. Even the strong currents calmed down so that the princess' voice could be heard, but not reaching the palace from where she had escaped, again—this time, from her lessons.

_Seven A.M. the usual morning line-up_

_Lessons will start and the same ol' story again_

_Grandpa's trident, oh-so-powerful that it's glowing_

_Praise the King and by then it's like seven-fifteen_

_And so I keep wonderin'_

_Why bother repeating_

_As if there's something beneath_

_We can't know about?_

_I look around and pause and think_

_So basically_

_I'm wonderin'_

_What they're hiding from us._

Just like any other day, Reine snaked away from the guards and escaped to the furthest settlement from the palace, the same place where she would usually visit after stealing the party food. She found this place two or three years ago, when the palace lessons started to bore her (not to mention the etiquette class afterwards, that made her fins felt like falling out from her tail if it were possible). That was how she knew life outside the palace was so different than the life inside—before this, she thought every merfolk would at least own a formal suit, but in this settlement she learned that one of her dresses (which consisted only of a skirt to cover the upper part of her tail while her top would simply be bikini top of some sort) could be split up for five to six people. This was the kind of truth tutors in the palace never mentioned about, although they told her that these lessons they taught in the small, stifling class was about life itself.

All these concealment and selective truth bothered her honest mind. Her grandfather seemed to be a just king—the guests in the party always had nothing but praises for him.

But that was all she could see now: seemed to be.

* * *

Allen finally found Neil who was, as always, all by himself at the back of the palace. "Hey~" he greeted with a grin.

"What's the business?" Neil asked straightforwardly, dropping the formalities since there was only the two of them.

"What do you think of Alicia?"

"Huh?"

"Alicia, my sister!" Allen repeated with impatience rising in his tone.

"Why so sudden?!"

"I think she likes you." Allen said with a grin.

Colour rose to Neil's cheeks, "Are you crazy or what?!"

"Hey, I'm just stating my observation!" the prince retorted, "Why don't you ask her out?"

"What kind of a brother are you?" Neil grumbled, "Did you just give her away to a guy ten years older than her?"

"I'd rather do that than letting her off with some rascal that I don't know." Allen admitted, "Besides, we could be real brothers if you end up with her!"

Neil rolled his eyes. "Allen, don't you forget," he said, "I'm a servant here."

"Hey!"

Neil ignored Allen's protests and stomped away to the direction of the beach, knowing that the prince was following him, still with his so-what-if-you-are-a-servant complaints. He had told Allen about the hole on the seawall, anyway. What both of them didn't realize, however, was that Alicia noticed them and, prompted by her teenage curiosity, decided to follow them quietly

And so the three people created trails of footsteps on the sand to the singular hole on the wall. Alicia seemed to have forgotten her initial intention when she saw the glimpse of the rolling waves through the hole and broke into a sprint and an excited squeal, "It's so cool~"

Neil and Allen turned and found the princess, much to Neil's horror.

_Oh my God, I'll totally be fired after today… _he groaned internally.

Alicia, oblivious to the sudden change in the mood, dashed to the hole and dipped her feet into the water. The mermaid blood in her body responded to this sensation warmly, exciting the young princess. "I've never seen waves from this close!"

Allen and Neil caught up with her quickly. "Alicia…" Allen called, trying to formulate the words in his head.

Suddenly, the skies turned black and the thunder struck the ocean. A huge roll of wave crashed to the wall and caught Alicia with it. "Help!"

"Alicia!"

Without much thinking, Allen leapt into the water. Alicia had never learned how to swim. Neil knew this as well and jumped into the water after the siblings.

Alicia tried to gain control of her limbs in the water, and it came rather naturally to her despite the lack of proper training in swimming. However, the successive waves kept dragging her down, as if reluctant to let her go. She saw her brother swimming towards her, and behind him, Neil.

Alicia tried to open her mouth, but quickly shut it back when the brine seawater immediately poured in as bubbles of air escaped her.

Allen and Neil saw the bubbles, and they became more frantic than ever. No matter how fast they swam, she kept drifting further and further away.

None of them knew that they were being played right into the Fates' hands.

* * *

_The Fates at work!_

_The descendants of Triton are back to the sea!_

_Stay tuned for the next chapter!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_


	4. Haleweed

_ToOH: I've heard of the game, but haven't played it yet. I can't really say Reine is "The Little Mermaid" because the plot, I can safely say, will be rather different than the Disney version. This, after all, is a fanmade sequel more than a rendition ^^ and I wouldn't say I'm a video game fiction writer coz saying that means I'd do the narration of the game through the MC's perspective (which is not what I'm doing for most of the time :P you can say I'm just borrowing characters from Harvest Moon and make my own stories with them :P maybe I should do the mainstream farming fanfiction after this hahahaha)_

_Bunnies4ever2: thanks for the enthusiasm! That really motivates me to do my job as the author better! ^^_

_teamBLAZE: Touché. That's partly the reason why I pick Josh Groban for Neil, since I'm aiming for I-can't-believe-you-sing-like-that reaction :P plus, since Flynn Rider's voice is already rather light and very lyrical, I can't give Neil similar sounding voice. But, like I said, you can imagine his voice to be however you wish ^^_

_Mew-Star-Mew: Thanks for liking his voice (technically not his, though, but oh well) and thanks for the love and the feeling is reciprocal! ^^ (from what you wrote in TAOAT) It took me three days to decide on his voice HAHAHAHA_

* * *

When the thunder struck, Ariel turned her head abruptly at the window. The sudden rain disturbed her inner peace so much that she turned to her attendant and said, "Call for my grandchildren."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

She was promptly gone and the maidservant didn't return for around fifteen minutes, agitating Ariel even further. Her heart beat even faster when she heard the rushed footsteps approaching her door. "They're nowhere to be found!"

"What?!"

Ariel threw another glance at the sea, wishing that what she was thinking were wrong. "Fetch Neil."

"He hasn't come back to the quarters yet, Your Majesty."

With a burst of adrenaline, Ariel ran out to the beach, and she found three sets of footprint sets that hadn't been totally wiped out by the rain. She lost the strength in her legs and fell to her knees. "Oh no… oh no…" she wept, "Fourteen years… gone in a blink."

* * *

The current kept separating Alicia from Allen and Neil, and after a while Alicia felt that she hit something. She turned around and found a man clad in battle armour on his upper half of the body, but his lower half was of a fish.

She opened her mouth in panic and water started to pour in again. The merman quickly held her and only then Neil and Allen managed to catch up. "Give her back!" Allen demanded quickly, although his voice was rather muffled by the water.

The merman stared at their legs. "Where do you come from? How do you get into Atlantica?"

_Atlantica?_ The siblings thought simultaneously. _It's a real place?_

Since the Queen concealed her mermaid origin, the younger generation had been allowed to think that Altantica existed only in fairy tales and their dreams. However, Neil wasn't as surprised as the prince and princess since he had seen a mermaid just yesterday, so nothing really surprised him now.

Just as the thought of that pink mermaid passed his head, she glided towards them, almost as if he conjured her, although actually she was attracted to the sudden commotion. "What's happening?"

On that familiar voice, Neil turned his head abruptly and Reine immediately noticed him, "Ah!" she cried out.

At the same time, Viv noticed Neil as well and she squealed happily. "That's the guy I told you about!"

_Oh, so it's her dolphin._ Neil noted inwardly, _pair of pinks._

Allen, quick on his feet, grabbed Neil aside and whispered, "You know that… she-demifish?"

"No." Neil replied nonchalantly.

"But she recognized you!" Allen insisted, "Bargain with her!"

"We have nothing to bargain with dumbass!" Neil protested back.

Reine sighed, "At least if you want to discuss a strategy to deal with me do it behind my back—and I'm a mermaid, not a _shedemifish_, thank you so much." She then turned to face the merman, who was one of the soldier of the palace, "Let me deal with them."

The merman hesitated. "But, Your Highness…"

Reine glared with her brilliant scarlet eyes squarely at the soldier. "I said, I'll do it." Her voice this time was half an octave lower than the previous one and Allen and Neil noticed that the merman was shaking.

Finally, he handed Alicia to Reine and quickly swam away. Without any word, Reine gave Alicia back to Allen. "Mermaids have a sharp hearing, apparently,"

"Nah, you just talk subconsciously louder since you aren't used to having water inside your ears."

"Who are you?" Allen asked curiously, his eyes scanning her curvaceous upper body. _Hourglass_, he noted inwardly.

"The name's Reine," she said, "You sure you have time chatting? The girl's not gonna hang on for long."

Reine led them to the surface, grabbing Allen's sleeves so that he could ascend faster while carrying his sister. However, a silver dolphin suddenly appeared before them. "Viserys!" Reine called out.

"Mistress is here." The dolphin said almost emotionlessly.

Reine turned to the side and much to her surprise, it was really Gwen, the Seeress. "What are you doing here?!" she asked.

"I can ask the same for you." Gwen replied calmly, "You're skipping class again, right?"

Gwen swam to Neil and Allen and gave them a kind of long weeds to them, a handful each. "What's this?" Allen asked, while scanning Gwen's upper body (it was almost a natural procedure for him, especially when it was only covered with strapless bikini top). _Another hourglass._

"Just eat it," Reine replied. "It will absorb the water in your breathing pathway for some good hours, so you can sort of breathe underwater during that period."

Hearing that, Allen quickly finished the handful seaweed-looking grass (anything green and grass-like would look like seaweed in the sea, anyway) and true enough, he could feel that they could breathe as if he were on the surface. He gave Alicia some of it and her previously pale face gradually regained its colour.

As for Neil, he didn't realize that he had been holding his breath the entire time, being controlled solely by his adrenaline in chasing Alicia in fear for the princess. Thus, when he opened his mouth, the compressed air in his lungs burst out and the water replaced them just as quickly. He coughed violently that the pink mermaid swam to him and hit his back firmly while helping him to take the plant. "Geez! Eat this quickly, and don't forget to breathe!"

Neil ingested the seaweed and it felt cold when it passed down his throat. However, that feeling went down to his chest—his lungs—instead of his stomach. It felt more like inhaling a minty scent rather than eating seaweed. Neil tried to take a deep breath, and it really felt like breathing in air since the seaweed—now latching onto the side of his respiratory tract—acted like gills to fishes, extracting the oxygen from the water.

"Back to my question, what makes you here? What vision do you have?"

Gwen smiled enigmatically. "You? Asking of my visions? You are the worst believer ever."

"Asking whether you have one doesn't mean I'll believe them." Reine quipped.

Gwen sighed, "That soldier reported it to our grandfather. These three," she said, turning her heads to them. "If you surface now, you'll get into trouble, too."

"I still sense you know more about this." Reine remarked, "You won't bother going out from your sanctuary otherwise."

"Is this the time to doubt me?" Gwen asked calmly.

Gwen turned her head and everyone turned to where she was staring at. This time, even more shocking than the appearance of the Seeress, it was the King himself who made his appearance known, the trident as well as the pair of his bracelets glowing in glorious golden.

"I heard about the trespassers."

"More like lost humans." Reine immediately replied.

"My sister was pulled into the sea, Your Majesty." Allen explained respectfully, noticing the golden crown on the king's head.

"Pulled in, you say?"

"Yes."

The King eyed the three of them carefully. "For humans… you have unbelievably strong lungs… to have reached Atlantica unharmed."

It was then Alicia fully regained her consciousness and she was shocked beyond belief when she saw more of this merfolks before her. Her arms quickly latched onto Allen's, who in turn put a protective arm around her body.

"Looking at you breathing regularly now, I presume you have been given the haleweed?" the King asked in a very warm tone, "Why don't we go to my palace to have a talk rather than having it… in some obscure water?"

Allen glanced at Neil, who in turn glanced at the only mermaid he had seen before this day. But the pink mermaid only gazed at the old merman fiercely, her scarlet eyes blazing in anger that couldn't possibly be stemmed by this matter.

The contact was broken by the seeress, who swam towards Reine and stared right into the latter's furious eyes. She leaned in and touched Reine's cheek lightly with her hand.

"Your untempered rage is like a fire strong enough to burn in ocean." She warned gravely in a low voice, "Old feuds root deep, but nothing will grow on it. It only begets blood, and more blood."

"That shall stop, but you must use the fire in you to forge something other than grudge."

Neil, being the closest to the two sisters, heard everything that she told Reine. He gazed at them quizzically as Gwen grabbed Reine gently by her wrist, leading her to follow their grandfather. Viserys followed behind his mistress faithfully while Viv swam behind Neil and nudged him forward. "C'mon, c'mon!"

"Yeah, I heard you." Neil responded reflexively.

"Eh? You understand what I'm saying?"

Neil quickly closed his mouth; he was surprised himself. _How could I understand… a dolphin?_

On their first meeting, he had responded to her actions while her voice sounded just like the regular dolphin's voice, yet now he actually could make out the words she was saying… maybe because they were in water? It didn't make sense to him at all. However, he knew that wasn't the important question now. He glanced at Allen, "What're you gonna do?"

Allen decided that he had no choice but to follow the party. To escape now, he believed, would bring more deadly consequences than his grandmother's nagging that would come afterwards.

Nevertheless, Allen glanced down and found that he had luckily brought his small sword. Not a sword for war—but handy enough to defend himself.

"You brought your sword?" he whispered.

Neil nodded—he always carried a short sword with him since he was often asked to go out to the market.

"I don't think they will attack us," Allen said, "but… just be prepared."

"Yeah."

* * *

_Gwen ominous remarks on old feuds is the prelude to the journey awaiting Triton's descendants..._

_Is Allen's vigilance justified?_

_Stay tuned for the next update!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_


	5. The First Quest

_Hey guys! Thanks for the wait and I am glad to announce that TheMultiColoredPencil_'s _OC, Leighton (spelled Leightone in this story), has joined the characters line-up! ^^_

_teamBLAZE: to put it simply, that's due to their merfolk heritage, but as for Allen's endurance maybe I have extrapolated the time too far now that you said it? (Alicia had roughly the same endurance with Melody, she didn't speak until she ate the haleweed)_

_ToOH: Maybe I will once I have my Christmas holiday! ^^ As for why Allen came along, it's more because he knows if they were to escape, the merfolk would easily chase them, so he thought it's better to play along first... and it's haleweed ^^_

_Bunnies4ever2: Yes, it really boost my morale to write! ^^_

* * *

The purple-tailed mermaid moved gleefully around the palace's yard, swimming in circle with an equally cheerful merman whom she had grown up with.

"Hey, Rod," the mermaid called as they kept chasing each other's tail in circle. "Have you ever heard a tale… about a mermaid who falls in love with a prince?"

"I've heard some!" Rod replied before trying to grab the mermaid's tail, although he hand was evaded at the last moment. The mermaid even managed to slap his hand away using her fins before moving away. "There are two versions. The first one ends with the mermaid turns into sea foam because the prince marries another woman."

"And then, the second version?"

"The mermaid marries the prince and they live happily ever after in a palace by the shore."

Leightone, or Leighlee, as she was usually called abruptly stopped swimming and stared at Rod with her deep amethyst eyes. Her purple hair, decorated with streaks of darker shade purple highlights at the sides, flowed gracefully around her. "Have you heard the news?" she asked, this time in a more serious tone. Seeing that, Rod dropped his cheerful attitude and switched to a more serious, more formal demeanour as expected from the first son of one of the King's close advisors.

"Three humans reaching Atlantica unharmed?" he asked, "The King is hosting a party for them, I heard. You should be called for soon."

Leighlee crossed her arms, frowning. "A party? For trespassers?"

"You know how fond your grandfather of parties is."

In terms of curiosity, Leighlee ranked second, just right behind Reine. However, while Reine's daringness to skip classes forged her curiosity into critical, more street-smart wit, Leighlee's careful studies had tempered hers into careful reasoning.

"Something doesn't fit quite right." She abruptly turned towards the palace. "I have to find Gwen."

Closely followed by Rod behind, Leighlee swam quickly to Gwen's private chamber. Just like any other time, the door was closed—but there was no sign of Gwen's faithful companion the equally taciturn dolphin Viserys.

"Gwen's not here?" Leighlee remarked in surprise. "She's not supposed to be working today, right?"

Rod shook his head, equally surprised by Gwen's absence from her private chamber.

"The Princess-Seeress left some moments ago," a servant volunteered the info when she noticed the presence of the fifth princess.

"O—oh, I see. Thank you."

Leighlee turned once again to face Rod. "You heard that? She went out."

"Totally strange." Rod remarked, voicing out the exact same thing with what Leighlee had in mind.

"She must've known something more about this."

Before Leighlee could gather her thoughts, another servant went towards her. "Your Highness, His Majesty asked that you should prepare yourself for a welcoming party."

Leighlee glanced aside and Rod gave her the 'I told you so' look. She sharpened her glare and Rod grinned, mouthing, 'I'll be there,' to her, finally softening her eyes.

* * *

Although he was supposed to be one of the guests of honour, Neil was not used to being at the centre of the party hall instead of standing near the table with tray at hand, offering it to any guest who approached him with empty hands. He sneaked out the party hall at the earliest opportunity and went to the palace's courtyard when he noticed that the pink mermaid was leaving clandestinely with the pink dolphin, carrying a sizeable sack with them.

_What are they doing?_

Curiosity swiftly took over him and he tried to follow them closely. His focusing on them led him not to realize that they were swimming into a deeper sea as they moved away from the central area of the kingdom—where the weeds were trimmed neatly and colourful corals decorated the ground—into the deeper sea where everything were wilder: the corals existed in more sombre colours and the weeds darker and taller. The fishes were also less colourful than those swimming around the palace, majority taking the colour of grey, brown, or even black. With that kind of environment, Reine and Viv's existence seemed to be out of place with their pinky appearance, but it made it easier for Neil to follow them.

After struggling with tall weeds (Neil almost got tangled several times, but he managed to deal with it without attracting any unwanted attention), finally Neil could see the place Reine and Viv were actually heading at. It was a settlement, akin to a village on land. Just like the fishes, the merfolks inhabiting this area tended to be paler in complexion and their tails tended to take on darker colours such as black or dirty brown, or very pale altogether, such as grey.

_So the living condition in sea and shore aren't so different, after all._ Neil remarked inwardly, hiding behind a tall bush of weeds. He watched quietly as the merchildren gathered around Reine—their gleeful voices could be heard until where he hid—and received the package that Reine and Viv had carried. Neil finally saw the content of the package: the party food.

_Did she steal it from the kitchen?_

It was then Neil felt there was something behind him. He turned around and saw two rows of sharp teeth bared at him. That, plus a pair of perfectly round eyes that protruding out from the sides of the head staring at him intently.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

He stumbled on the weed and fell onto the ground, rolling his way down. When his body stopped rolling and was about to float, something held him down and he opened his eyes, his breath still ragging from his earlier shock.

"You followed us here?" Reine asked with a tone of annoyance.

"Wha… wha… I…"

Reine sighed heavily and helped him to stand, or rather float properly. "Don't worry, that fish is harmless." She said, grabbing his white shirt, "Most probably attracted by this."

Neil pounded lightly on his chest several times to get over his shock. "I've never seen that kind of fish."

"Of course, you never swam this deep before." Reine quipped.

Neil turned around and noticed another pair of eyes staring intently at him. This time it was a small mergirl, probably around six or seven years old. Her hair was dark brown while her tail was very dark blue, almost the same with the water surrounding her.

"This is Mika, my little friend," Reine introduced him, "And Mika, this is…" only then Reine remembered she never really got to know his name. She glanced at him and Neil took the hint. "Neil."

Mika scanned him from top to bottom, pausing at his feet. "Reine, what's wrong with his fins? It's very small."

Hearing Mika's innocent question, Viv and Reine burst out laughing, much to Mika's confusion. Neil quickly looked down and realized that his black trousers might look like a tail (albeit being a very strange one at that).

"Yeah. He's a strange merguy." Reine finally said.

"Is he your friend?"

"Um…" Reine hesitated for a moment. "You can say so."

Finally the mergirl turned at Neil and flashed him a bright smile that brightened up the dark deep sea with her row of white teeth. "Hello, Neil!"

"Uh… hello." Neil replied hesitantly.

"I have to go back now," Reine suddenly declared.

Mika's dark eyes glistened playfully. "Is he your boyfriend, then?"

"YES!" Viv shouted at the top of her lungs, granting her a sharp elbow jab from Reine, "Eeeek! Whyyy~?"

"Shut up, Viv, don't shout nonsense!" Reine then turned to Mika, "No. He's not my boyfriend."

"Then, why are you leaving once he appeared?"

"Because… I remembered that I haven't done my group work with him!" Reine grinned, satisfied with her impromptu lie, while Viv rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner.

"Will you come back soon?"

"Yes, as soon as I could."

After saying goodbye to the other merchildren, Reine pulled Neil away while Viv swam close by. After they had put considerable distance from the settlement, the mermaid spoke up with the earlier hint of annoyance came back again.

"Don't you dare bring this up to my grandfather."

"He doesn't know?"

Viv nudged Neil on the small of his back and Neil turned around. The dolphin then shook her head slowly, prompting for Neil to drop the subject altogether.

"Any case," Reine said, "If you followed me thinking I could help you with going back to the surface, sorry, you're wrong," she quickly added, "Unless we're talking about sneaking out at night."

"What?!"

"You have better chance if you ask Gwen to intervene instead of me."

"Gwen? Who's that?"

"The other mermaid earlier. The one with the veil covering the lower half of her face."

Neil remembered seeing such a mermaid earlier, for she was the only mermaid who covered her face, albeit partially. "Why her?"

"Gramps' favourite." Reine replied curtly. "I can help you in talking to her, but that's all I can offer."

* * *

True to her words, Reine talked to Gwen about the fates of the three humans in private and although Gwen didn't say anything to her back then, Reine knew that Gwen immediately went to the Throne Room after their conversation.

The three humans were summoned to the Throne Room before dinner, with the court high-ranking officials being present as well as the seven princesses. While the six princesses stood below the stairs leading to the raised Throne, Gwen stood at the side of the Throne, indicating her formal position as one of the King's advisers (although she rarely appeared).

"There are still questions on how humans like you could reach Atlantica while still retaining your lives." The King admitted. "One of you must agree to undergo a quest. Only after that I will release one of you."

"So, we'll need to complete three quests to release the three of us?" Allen asked.

"That is correct."

Neil immediately stepped forward. "I'll go."

Alicia gasped in horror while the King seemed to take a careful look on Neil before declaring. "You will do." He said, "Fetch me the Flower of Illusions."

This time, every merfolk in the Throne Room, except for Gwen, gasped in surprise. Reine immediately stepped forward from her place and raised her hand. "I'll go with him."

"Princess!" One of the court officials exclaimed in surprise.

"Reine…" the King trailed off, "Why?"

"You are a just king." Reine declared boldly. "Is it fair to send an ignorant human for such a task without any proper help? There is no road nor map in the sea; I believe it is only fair if somebody were to act as his guide."

The Throne Room fell into silence as Reine's words sunk into the wisest men in the kingdom. The King stared at his youngest granddaughter in a mixture of awe and disbelief, never really noticing her growth up until this very day.

Meanwhile, the three humans were equally shocked: what was exactly required in the mission that one of the princesses offered her help personally that the Throne Room fell into this cold silence?

* * *

"I want to come along!" Alicia whined for the fourth time as Neil and Reine were about to set off since she couldn't condone the idea of Neil spending time alone with a mermaid.

Initially, the King was against the idea of letting Reine go, but Gwen managed to convince the King to let Reine had her way. The first quest was agreed to be Alicia's exchange, since she was the youngest and the only female member.

"I want to come along!"

Reine sighed and faced the human princess. "You can come along, you don't even have to be useful."

Alicia let out an excited 'Yes!' before she heard Reine's next sentence: "But are you sure you won't be a burden?"

"Such a tone!" Alicia cried out while grabbing Reine's face with both of her hands. "Are you saying I'm a burden?!"

"There's a limited amount of haleweed we can carry along," Reine remarked, "I don't entertain midway emergency surfacing."

"But… but…" Alicia trailed off, reluctant to voice out the real reason of her wanting to come along. She bit her lower lip and scanned Reine's carefully, especially on the defined curves of her body that wasn't covered by any piece of cloth but her pink bikini top. "You're ugly." She mumbled.

"What does that have to do with the mission?!" Reine asked back sharply.

"I… I want to come along!"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"You're not denying that you're ugly!"

"Still doesn't make sense! Don't waste my time, you spoiled brat!"

"I'm not a brat! I'm fourteen!" Alicia exclaimed in frustration, almost at the verge of tears, as she tried to stomp on the ground—but of course, there was nothing beneath her feet to stomp on.

Reine sneered, "You act like a four-year old." She set her tail before Alicia's face and made a sweeping downward movement, sending a strong current on the princess' face, strong enough to loosen some strands of her hair from the braided arrangement. "And if you want to stomp, do it properly like the one I did."

"Alicia, just stay with me, will you?" Allen finally stepped in, seeing that the mermaid might feed his sister to some scary fishes if he didn't do so.

Alicia turned at Allen, feeling dejected and dissatisfied as Reine finally swam away to Neil who had been waiting with Viv about ten metres away (hence not hearing any of that argument).

"Such a spoiled princess." Reine snorted.

"Who? Alicia?"

"Is that redhead guy a princess?" Reine snapped back.

Neil shrugged. "She might seem to be spoiled, but—"

"YOUR BODY IS LIKE AN OLD AUNTIE!"

Reine disappeared from Neil's side in a flash and reappeared before Alicia, her scarlet eyes glaring sharply at her, "Listen, you brat, if you are really sure you can not be a burden, be my guest. And when I say not a burden means no screaming when you see fanged fishes—and there'll be lots of them swimming at you with your whiny attitude since you sound like a dainty fish asked to be eaten!"

"F… fanged fish? Fish with fangs?"

"You heard me right."

Colour was drained from her face as Alicia tried to imagine a fanged fish—maybe with tiger straps on its body? Or black spots like a cheetah's? In any case, Reine made it sounded like these fanged fishes were worse than piranhas somehow.

Finally Allen stepped in between the two of them, "You said you don't want to waste time, right?" he reminded her, before smirking, "Besides, your body totally doesn't look like an old auntie."

Reine glared at Allen momentarily before she turned around and made her way back to Neil and Viv, this time much more slowly.

Meanwhile, Neil watched the scene (still not knowing what they were talking about, plus he didn't really care about it) from distance, amazed by Reine's swimming speed earlier.

"She can outswim a blue shark when angered." Viv remarked, "And scarier, too."

Neil gulped in a renewed awe for the mermaid, as well as nervousness for what awaited him.

Looking at that, maybe he shouldn't be too worried whether this mermaid princess could survive the mission. Maybe he should be worried about himself, instead, since why would Reine offer help otherwise?

* * *

_Seems like Reine doesn't realize Alicia's jealousy :P_

_and how will their journey unfold?_

_Stay tuned for the next chapter!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: by the way, Reine's sixteen, so she's not that much older than Alicia although her body has already developed the curves and everything that incited the latter's jealousy. ^^_**


	6. Beneath Her Words

_teamBLAZE: Alicia's getting desperate, don't you think, calling Reine's an auntie and all :P_

_Bunnies4ever2: yeah, I played RF4 and RF3 (the one with Micah) ^^ I like Dylas a lot! ^^_

* * *

After Reine, Neil and Viv were out from sight, Gwen turned back and glided towards the palace without uttering any word, accompanied by her faithful companion, Viserys, who was equally emotionless. Allen watched the whole scene rolled with disbelief, almost disgust towards the Seeress' detachment towards her own—and only—younger sister.

"Actually, they're twins."

Allen turned his head abruptly and found a purple-tailed mermaid. "Oh, hey, call me Leighlee since you're going to stay for a while," she flashed a brief smile at the prince before continuing. "Like I was saying, Gwen and Reine are twins—they were born one-hour apart from each other."

"That's all the more reason her cold attitude is…"

"but she is a Seeress, and Reine is not." Leighlee interjected softly.

"What do you mean by that?"

Leighlee gazed darkly towards the palace's direction, where Gwen had disappeared into moments ago. "Sometimes, the easiest way to accept things is to force yourself to do it." She murmured before trying to smile again in front of Allen, "I believe you have not been shown to your rooms?"

* * *

"Why did you help me?" Neil asked when they were already some distance away from the palace. "It's not like you'll be affected if anything were to happen to me anyway."

"Oh, I get to skip classes." Reine replied simply while humming a cheerful tone.

"Skip classes? Are you serious?!"

"You don't know how boring they are, shut up."

"What if there are sharks?" Neil asked in a challenging tone, "You really don't think sharks are worth skipping class for?!"

Just like that, a shark appeared before them and glared at them, making it obvious that it saw them at the best to be obstacle to its path and at worst its prey. Viv tensed at the sight of the greyish shark and moved closer towards Reine.

"You should really watch your mouth," Reine remarked, but with no hint of fear in her voice.

Following his instinct, Neil tried to swim away, but his movements attracted the shark that it locked on him as its target. Reine tried to grab him, but it was too late.

"Damn! Viv, the gills!"

"Okay!"

Just before the shark reached Neil, Viv smashed herself to the shark's side, blocking its gills and momentarily stunned the predator. Reine used this interval to slide below the shark's body, her head directly below its' half-opened jaws and wrapped her arms around its streamlined body, trying to reach as far as she could. In a breath, Reine flipped over their position, inverting the shark, and held it for about twenty seconds before letting go, and the shark stayed inverted, floating along with the current.

Neil looked at Reine in disbelief. Within the short time span they had spent together, she had done two things most girls (or even mermaids) wouldn't do in their lifetime:

Venturing into deep sea with fanged fishes without being unfazed, checked.

Wrestling a shark and won, checked.

"…is it dead?" Neil asked in disbelief, his eyes still following the shark that almost ate him.

"No." Reine said while swimming towards him, "I forced him to play dead."

"Huh?"

"Let me teach you a trick: most shark will be stunned like that—" she pointed at the shark that floated away from them, "—if you invert their bodies. Some types have special methods, but body inverting works for most. They will come back to their senses in fifteen minutes, but if you keep holding them inverted then, you'll probably kill them."

Viv sneaked into the space between the two of them. "This's why having Reine in your quest increases your survival rate by one hundred, or even two hundred percent!"

"That's too much." Reine retorted, pinching Viv's flipper softly.

"Aw!"

"Any case, don't be too afraid of sharks. Some of them are even shy." Reine said, "but don't be dumb enough to go one-on-one with a shark unless it's do or die."

"Who taught you that?"

"Mama Orca." Reine replied, grinning ear to ear, "and we're going to her now."

"She knows _everything_ you can possibly know in Atlantica!" Viv joined in.

* * *

They swam for what seemed to be eternity for Neil if he hadn't ingested the haleweed before they finally found a pod of orcas with varying sizes. Viv let out a whistling-like voice and the orcas turned to the small party.

"Oh, look! It's Reine and Viv!" one of the orcas exclaimed.

They immediately swam towards them and encircling them. "Hi! Hi! Long time no see!"

"Hi!" Reine greeted back, swimming between them while caressing their skin. The orcas obviously loved the gesture as they swam closer to Reine, letting her to move her hand lightly over their bodies.

One of the female orcas noticed Neil and poked at his blonde hair. Neil, unsure how to react after the shark episode, stayed as still as a rock. "What happened to this boy?"

"Shorked." Reine quipped.

"But he has quite a lung power to swim alongside you." The orca said, still playing around with Neil (now she was sniffing his clothes, tickling him all over his body).

"We gave him haleweed."

"Eh? That's unusual." The orca remarked, "What happened this time?"

"Long story. To put it simply, three humans somehow wandered into Atlantica." She continued, "That's why I need to see Mama Orca now."

"She's there!" one of the orcas replied, pointing at a certain direction.

Neil followed the direction and he saw another orca, considerably larger than the other. That particular orca swam slowly towards them, and Neil could feel the current she created due to her movement even from where he was. The other orcas immediately made way to their matriarch.

"Mama Orca!" Reine called with a girlish excitement.

"You've grown so much since the last summer." Mama Orca replied with a smile, "What brings you here, my dear?"

"I need to know about Flower of Illusions."

"Flower of Illusions?" Mama Orca replied hesitantly. "Why so?"

"It's a ransom for this human's friends."

"The king held them captive?"

"Not exactly captive—I'm sure he treats them well." Reine remarked, "but… you get what I'm trying to say."

Mama Orca turned to look closer at Neil, who had been pushed towards her by another orca. "Poor thing… you must be very confused."

With the wall separating the castle from the sea, Neil often wondered the day where he could go back playing in the water: diving, looking at the beautiful corals, or even playing with schools of small fishes that often appeared on the shallow waters. Now, he had gotten more than he had hoped for: fanged fish, sharks, and orcas. Plus, he could breathe underwater now… and he could actually listen to what fishes were saying.

"Am I… supposed to be able to know what you're saying?"

All the orcas were stunned in surprise when Neil talked to them, even Mama Orca herself. The younger orcas immediately buzzed among themselves while Mama Orca stared silently at Reine. "That's another thing I thought you might have an idea about." She finally said.

_So… I'm not supposed to?_ Neil concluded inwardly.

Mama Orca stared at Neil again, this time more intently. She seemed to be studying the details of his being: his forehead, his nose bridge, his cheekbones, his jawline, as well as his complexion. She began to understand a possible reason for the King's interest in that group of humans, assuming that his human companions were the same as him, but the wise orca decided not to tell Reine about it since it was still a premature thought.

"Flower of Illusions will only appear on a full moon night, on the sea ground lighted by the moon." Mama Orca explained, "If you don't pluck it when the moon was still shining on it, it will be gone. That's why people call it Flower of Illusions."

"Full moon will appear in five days, right?" Reine pondered aloud. "But… how do I know where it will shine on?"

"You know the deep flower field north to this waters?" Mama Orca asked, "I saw the flower bloomed there on a full moon night some sixty years ago. There's a good chance."

Reine nodded. "I know the place." She then smiled at the orca, "Thanks, Mama Orca!"

After thanking the pod, Reine, Neil and Viv dashed off to their destination with Reine acting as the lead. There was no road in the waters, so an efficient navigator was a must for their quest, especially when they had to reach the place within a period of time just like this.

Neil remembered that when he asked her earlier, she told him she was just skipping classes. But, looking at her determination as if the quest was her own, Neil began to wonder whether she was being totally honest with him back then.

* * *

"Will they be alright?" Allen sighed heavily.

"You can't ask for better partner than Princess Renaissance in a survival game!" Rod, who had accompanied Allen as per Leighlee's request, said. "Trust me on that!"

"She's still a girl."

"She can kill a great white shark if she wants to."

Allen gasped, and a horde of bubbles came out from his mouth. "Really?!"

"Yeah. She's a pro at incapacitating sharks, especially with Vivienne around." Rod grinned, "As long as there's her, you don't need to worry about your brother!"

Allen nodded, not bothering to tell Rod that Neil wasn't actually his brother since he often considered him as one himself. How else should he describe their strong love-hate relationship if not brotherly, anyway?

The door to his room was opened, and much to the surprise of everyone in the room, the Princess-Seeress stood at the other side of the door. Rod immediately swam to her side, bowing respectfully, "Your Highness."

Gwen nodded at Rod, acknowledging him, before moving towards Allen in a slow, but graceful movement. Allen looked up and saw her deep blue eyes—the only visible part of his face due to the veil. He was still rather bothered by her cold attitude towards her own twin earlier, so he dropped all form of courtesy he would usually show towards women. "What do you want?" he asked coldly.

Gwen said nothing but she moved her hand to touch Allen's cheek lightly. Her touch was cold, even colder than the water around them, and Allen felt a slight chill ran down his spine as she did so. He unconsciously held his breath as her cold gaze pierced him.

"If you want to stay alive, stay close," the seeress said, "if you want to go back, don't stay close."

* * *

_What is the meaning of Gwen's words?_

_Will Neil get the Flower of Illusions?_

_Stay tuned for the next update!_

_Thanks for reading!_

_Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: the method Reine used to incapacitate the shark does exist. Basically, Reine was inducing tonic immobility to the shark, you can just google it if you're interested! ^^_**


	7. Frozen Scene

_ToOH: if i do make a story on that game, I'll create another OC specifically for that title! ^^ (maybe with Reine-like personality, but the name won't be Reine, Renaissance, or even Renee since it would be too similar) and I hope when the time comes, it'll be up to the expectation! ^^_

_teamBLAZE: maybe you meant ambiguous? ^^ and yes, we'll figure that out eventually ^^_

_Bunnies4ever2: Courting Doug takes a long time, so I kinda gave up on it. I like Doug as a best friend kind of like with his personality but I'm totally head over heels for Dylas. I think I have a thing for quiet, shy guys HAHAHAHA_

* * *

"Wha—"

Ignoring him completely, Gwen turned around as soon as she finished her sentence. Overcame by surprise and irritation, Allen rose and exclaimed, "I have no taste in women who play hard to get too hard!"

Gwen stopped on her track momentarily, but she said nothing. Allen could hear her drawing in a heavy breath, though, and for a moment he regretted of having lost his manners in front of her. After all, the seeress was still a lady—a refined one at that as well. He sighed heavily himself, but prideful as he was, he didn't apologize—she started it by being so cold and ambiguous, anyway.

Besides, how could he trust someone who kept covering half of her face behind a veil? He could barely see her lips moving when she talked—how could he know she wasn't joking around?

Gwen was deciding whether to turn and talk more to this human or not. When she touched him earlier, she foresaw his outburst, but there was nothing after that. Her visions were indeed never complete; there were so many blurred areas. It was like asking someone with short-range vision to see with a small corrective lens—they could only see within the boundary that was allowed by the lens. And Allen's, so far, had been the worst that she had experienced.

Maybe she couldn't see his future as clear because he wasn't a merfolk? Or maybe she couldn't see it because she wasn't close enough to him to know his thought pattern—for indeed the closer she was personally to the person, the easier it would be for her to see their future?

Usually, she would use the visions she had been given as her guide, but for this case, she had none.

_What should I do?_ Gwen asked herself inwardly.

* * *

"Are you in love?"

Neil turned his head to find the pink dolphin swimming next to him, slightly behind the mermaid. The dolphin smirked at him, "C'mon, don't be shy!"

"I'm not."

"Then why are you staring at Reine with _that_ look?"

"What look?"

"_That_ look!" Viv repeated, "You've been looking at her ever since we went to Mama Orca!"

"Doesn't mean I'm in love with her!"

"Then you admit you're looking at her?"

_Dang it._ Neil grunted inwardly, realizing too late that he had indeed implicitly admitted that he had been looking at Reine. "I don't want to get lost."

"Don't be shy~" Viv grinned, "Or maybe you're wondering why Reine's helping you out?" she asked, this time less teasingly.

Neil nodded.

"Good. You're not taking that half-cooked skipping class lie—she sucks at lying. I mean, yeah, she loves skipping classes, but that besides the point…" Viv turned at Reine, who was still swimming forward, not noticing the conversation going on behind her tail. "You see, Reine is all about fairness. She can't stand something unfair."

"What's unfair about my quest?"

"Do you know about Flower of Illusion? Do you know your way in the sea? Do you have any idea about the dos and don'ts in the sea?" Viv continued, "You can ask around, of course, but you're not supposed to be able to talk to sea creatures—I mean, yeah, most humans won't be able to hear us talking… so you should've needed a translator."

"O—oh, okay."

"Any case, let's catch up with her so she doesn't get too suspicious."

"Right…"

* * *

Allen and Gwen stayed still at their positions, neither made a move. Their position would make a perfect scene for a still life; in fact, their stillness really made it as if they were inside a painting: captured forever. Their minds, however, were active in firing off various thoughts:

_Should I approach her? Should I ask her to turn around?_

_Should I turn around? Should I just leave?_

Just then, Alicia burst into the room together with Leighlee. "Allen! This place is very cool!" she exclaimed excitedly.

Her words seemed to release the stunning spell on both of them since Gwen immediately left the room without uttering another word while Allen immediately approached his sister, acting as if the last three minutes had never happened.

"Thanks for showing her around," he said sincerely to Leighlee, prompting the latter to turn away from the door Gwen passed through silently earlier and faced the prince.

"No problem." She said with a smile before hugging Alicia, "See you around, Ally."

She offered a friendly smile at Allen and left the room without saying much. "She is soooo much nicer than that auntie."

"Nah, you're just jealous that she gets to spend time with Neil."

Alicia's face suddenly turned red, "Wha—! No!"

"Don't worry, that dolphin is coming along," Allen said with a smirk, "They won't get that alone time you are really worried about."

Alicia puffed her cheeks. "Leighlee told me Reine's only two years older than me." She pouted, "but look at her body! She even dares to show it off!"

"I think you're worrying too much." Allen said, chuckling lightly. "She's dressed just like other mermaids we see so far."

Alicia moved towards the couch and tried to sit on it, although it's hard since the skirt of her dress kept getting in the way that sitting down became such a burden. In the end, she simply hovered above the couch, as if she was sitting on it. "Hey, I still can't believe that merpeople really exist." She admitted, "I mean… they're everywhere in the fairy tales, but—under our own shore!"

"Yeah…"

"Then, do you think that story is true as well?" Alicia inquired curiously, "That Grandma used to be a mermaid?"

"Well, why not?" Allen asked back.

"There are so many stories going around the castle!" Alicia pouted, "And some of them are just _unbelievable_!"

Allen nodded in agreement. Stories were indeed pervasive in the castle, and as he grew up he began to hear more and more about them. Some were bombastically fairytale-ish (like the one about their grandmother, the Queen, being of a mermaid heritage although now he began to think of that possibility being true—since how could there be a smoke when there's no fire?), and others were more like malicious attempt to bring another staff down in the hierarchy of the castle's household.

Neil was often to be the victim of these rumours, and Allen used to think that it was their friendship that might incite the envy of other servants so he wasn't offended when Neil began to distance himself as they grew up, especially after his father's death. However, after their awkward teenage years were over, it seemed that Neil had grown resistant to these rumours, but it also had transformed his naturally quiet attitude to something colder and more misanthropic.

Allen couldn't really blame Neil, of course, since he knew how badly the other servants had treated Neil. He never told the blonde guy, but when they were around fifteen or sixteen years old, he saw him being cornered by some other older servants. He could even hear their conversation then, and he still remembered it until now:

_"Don't play dumb! It must be true—you're the Prince's bastard!"_

_"Ya! Why else he would pick you as his errand boy anyway?!"_

_"And The Queen seemed to play favourite with you as well—there couldn't be other explanation!"_

He, too, remembered Neil's exact response to them.

_"That's a very respectful way to talk about the dead."_

"Allen?"

Alicia's voice abruptly snapped him back to the present. "You're spacing out." His sister pointed out.

"Ah, yes, getting water all over me is still a new thing," Allen bluffed it off smoothly.

There were days Allen wondered whether that rumour was true, but every time he looked at Alicia, he wished that it wasn't for the sake of his blissfully ignorant sister.

* * *

_Will Allen and Gwen smoothen out their differences?_

_Stay tuned for the next chapter! Thanks for reading! Please rate and review ^^_


	8. Curiosity

_Hey guys, I'm back into action! Thanks for waiting and I hope I didn't kill you out of boredom! ^^_

* * *

"I wonder why Grandfather wants the flower." Reine said as they almost reached the said location. "It's a rare flower, and it looks pretty on drawings… but that can't be all."

"Decoration?" Viv suggested.

"That would be one hella decoration." Reine quipped, before scratching her head in frustration and spinning in frantic circles, like a wheel rolling on a downhill road. "Aaargh! Should've asked Gwen or Leighlee about that before setting off!"

"Why should you know?" Neil asked coldly. "The quest is to get it and give it to him. Period."

"Aren't you curious?" Reine asked back, slightly annoyed by his apparent disinterest. "There _must_ be a reason!"

"Curiosity kills the cat."

"A cat? What's that?"

_Oh, yeah, she'd probably never seen a cat in her whole life._ Neil reminded himself.

"Is that food?" Reine asked again, her scarlet eyes sparkled with curiosity.

Neil took a good look on Reine, especially on her lower body. "More like… your predator…?"

"A land animal?"

"Yes."

Reine nodded accompanied by a cheery 'hmm' before her head perked up and she turned at him, "Tell me, do you know mermaids exist before meeting me?"

"Hah? Um—in fairy tales, I guess."

"Do you want to know how my tutor used to describe humans?" Reine said with a giggle, "Merfolk with split tail and unbelievably small fins."

After hearing her words, Neil straightened his body and looked at his legs, trying to see the similarities between them and Reine's tail. "It's better than I've imagined." Reine assured him with a cheeky grin.

Neil didn't respond to her and Reine—sensitive as she was—noticed that. She smiled and asked, this time in a softer voice. "Either you don't like me, or you're just not much of a talker."

Caught red-handed, Neil scratched his cheek nervously and averted his eyes from her. "It's okay," she assured him, "Let's just stick to our business and get it done with, eh?"

They continued swimming, but this time there was a sense of awkward lingering awkwardness between them that Viv was tacitly forced to pick the middle spot as they continued swimming.

"There is this… tale among merfolk. About a mermaid who was brought to a magical sea and embarked on a quest with friends she found there. After the quest, she had to go back to her own sea, and she figured that actually, five hundred years had passed and everyone she knew had either become very old or even passed on while she stayed the same thanks to the time in the magical sea being much slower. But she didn't regret it, because she really treasured the memories of her adventure then." Reine recalled. "My point is: you told me mermaids only exist in fairy tales in the world you knew—it doesn't have to be an amazing memory, but I really want you to take the memory back when everything is over because that's all you'll be left with."

After she finished speaking, Reine swam slightly faster to take the lead. It took some moments for Neil to really internalize what the mermaid meant, and when he was done, he forced his legs to propel faster so that he could catch up to Reine.

"Why do you care so much?" he asked in a gentle, genuinely curious tone.

He heard her sighing heavily and Neil found himself wondering whether he had annoyed her, and then wondering why the heck he cared if he did.

"Do I really need a reason to do something nice?" Reine asked back.

* * *

Although technically they were prisoners, Allen found out pretty quickly that he and his sister were treated more like guests. When they were given different rooms, Allen thought that was because they were of different genders—and he already thought that it was very generous of them, and when he saw the size of the room he wondered whether he would have to share the room with Neil when he came back, not that he minded. However, one of the princesses—Leighlee, if he got her name correct—finally told him that Neil would be given another room and that they weren't considered as prisoners.

"My grandfather fancies humans—not in a bad way." Leighlee explained, "I am assured that he wants to get to know you more. Please do make yourself feel at home."

"So we are like… his study specimens?"

"If you must put it that way, yes." Leighlee replied, "but you know… I think it's more like you're an… ambassador? You're a prince from the shore, yes?"

"Ah, yes." Allen agreed. "Cultural ambassador? I can deal with that."

Leighlee grinned. "Great! You can just ask me anything about merkind culture—or any of my sisters for that matter, although you might want to exclude Gwen."

"Why? Because she is a _seeress_?"

The purple mermaid smiled sympathetically, "For many merfolks, the Seeress represents Truth. Ever since her power was awakened, Gwen tries her best to fulfil this expectation—including being neutral to almost anything. That's why she chooses to put a certain distance between herself and the rest of merkind."

"So I am counted as one." Allen retorted.

The mermaid laughed, "Well, technically you're not, but I guess she's already used to being alone." She said, "and honestly, it's amusing that you're so bothered by it—seems like you're not used to be given cold shoulder, eh?"

Leighlee excused herself still with an amused smile on her face as she swam gracefully towards a ginger-haired young merman with bright yellow tail. Not knowing what to do, Allen moved his legs and began to swim himself but in no particular direction.

Honestly speaking, maybe Leighlee did have some point in him not being used to be treated so coldly by women; back in his castle, every time a ball was held, the women surrounded him like ants to sugar and he never had any difficulty in looking for someone to engage in conversation with, yet, in this underwater castle he had no one.

_Wait, why don't I approach other mermaids? It's not like she's the only mermaid around! Oh, come on—_

"Please, Your Highness!"

The sudden, loud scream jolted Allen back from his thoughts. He turned towards the source of the voice and found a door that—if his memory served him right—led to the Seeress' Chamber (the place where Gwen would allow merkind—or perhaps human, now—to have their future being seen).

"Can't you tell me more?!"

Out of curiosity, Allen went to the door and moved it carefully. Curiously, Gwen's pet dolphin wasn't around (or else he would be standing guard in front of the door), so he was able to peek inside and saw the back view of a merman with imposing figure who leaned over the table and grabbing Gwen's hands.

"There is nothing more." She said calmly.

Hearing her response, the merman pulled her towards himself and she stumbled over the table that stood between them. That moment, Allen burst out from the door and put his hand on the merman's shoulder. "Don't you think that is too much? Is that how you treat a respectable lady?"

The merman turned his head and found Allen's cold steel blue gaze imposed onto him. The merman had wider and more muscular build than Allen, but he was apparently intimidated by Allen's gaze that was—unknowingly to Allen—reminiscent of Triton's stern gaze. The merman immediately let go of the Seeress, mumbled an apology, and left hurriedly. Gwen immediately covered her reddened wrist, trying to conceal it from Allen in vain.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded and he sighed, "Where's your faithful watch-dolphin, anyway? He would've body-slammed that impolite merman. You sure are lucky I happened to be around."

"…sleep." Gwen replied softly.

"Pardon?"

"He hadn't been sleeping for two days. I asked him to."

"I see…" Allen murmured. _Seems like she still have some affection in her heart._

Much to his surprise, Gwen extended her hand towards him. "Hm?"

"I can read your future if you let me touch your skin. I never really tried it on humans, but since you're not so different from a merman maybe it can work."

"Why suddenly the generous offer?"

"Didn't you come by for this?"

"Were you listening to me, my lady? I happened to be around."

It took Gwen some moments to finally internalize his words and she took back her hands and nodded. "I see."

Sensing her hesitation, Allen asked. "Do I need a reason to be courteous?"

Gwen's head perked up and her dark blue eyes stared right at his. Finally getting her undivided attention, Allen continued. "I don't think we need reason for basic courtesy, no?"

Beneath the cover given by her veil, Gwen's lips tugged up into a small, but sincere smile. "I suppose not…"

* * *

_Seems like their relationships are taking a new turn... all four of them._

_What will happen next?_

_Stay tuned to find out! ^^_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_


	9. The Human and The Mermaid

_Bunnies4ever2: thanks! and the next chapter it is! ^^_

_By the way, I am starting on a new story, this time on Fire Emblem: Awakening (credit to Tailor of Our Hearts who suggested the game, and yes, this story is in response to your request!) the title is Recto Verso __so.. drop by when you feel like it? ^^ hope to see you there!_

* * *

In the past, the Seeress—or at least a potential Seeress—could be determined at the moment of birth, or more accurately the moment when the merbaby cried for the first time. All past Seeresses possessed an almost-magical voice that could stun everyone who heard the voice—in the past, it proved to be much useful to ensure the vision would be delivered without interruption.

Through this way, Reine was considered as a potential Seeress when she was born since her cry did stun everyone who came to witness the birth of the twin princesses. According to the account of those present, Reine's cry was—unlike typical merbabies—melodious although still ear-piercing. Not many could describe her voice back then, but they agreed that her cry made the room still until the warmth of her mother's skin finally seeped into her body and she calmed down.

When Gwen's power was awakened, the court was visibly shocked. Reine still retained her magical voice while Gwen, quiet as she was, never demonstrated any of that effect despite having an equally lovely voice herself. One of the wise counsellors in the court thus theorized that having dwelled in the same womb, the spirit of the Seeress reached out to Reine, although to a smaller extent, which led her to inherit the Seeress' Voice despite not being the Seeress herself. As for Gwen, her voice did develop the stunning effect that was akin to the original Seeress' Voice, but it was not equal to that of Reine if the latter chose to unleash its full power. However, such instances had never occurred since Reine was not aware of the potential of her own voice.

* * *

Gwen saw the flower, the white petals slowly blooming and glowing as if it had absorbed the moonlight in its wholeness. She could see a chain of events unravelling through the flower; as usual, they were blurred and as she went further away into the future, it would be even more unclear and hazy—but she could sense the gist of it still.

When her vision reverted back into the present, Gwen saw Allen's blue eyes staring right into hers.

"Are you feeling all right?" he asked worriedly.

"Hm?"

"Your eyes…"

Suddenly, Viserys burst into the room and slammed his body against Allen, hard enough to knock him off to the wall, "Mistress!"

There was a brief period of silence as Allen was regaining his balance, rubbing his arm that banged against the wall. "See? Told you." He chuckled.

"Mistress, I hope he did not hurt you."

"Quite the opposite, actually." Gwen replied. "He defended me."

Viserys turned his body towards Allen, eyeing him very carefully before his muzzle split open a little. "I am sorry, sir."

"Nah, you're doing your job." Allen said, smiling.

Viserys glanced at Gwen who gave him the signal to wait outside of the chamber, which he followed faithfully. Alone again with the human prince, Gwen decided to speak, "Thank you for being… very good-natured about it."

"No problem."

Gwen made a small nod before she turned away from him. Somehow beginning to understand her, Allen took it as his cue to leave the chamber himself—only to realize that it was the first time he spent his time alone with a lady in a chamber. Allen, who was more used to be at the centre of the crowd of ladies, smiled to himself:

_Not as half-bad as I'd thought…_

* * *

After passing through thick bushes of weeds and corals, the small party finally saw the wide green expanse of sea ground which, surprisingly, Neil found to be very alike with a grass field except for some floating creatures that after closer inspection turned out to be jellyfishes.

"I almost forgot this field is also called the Jellyfish Field." Reine murmured.

The jellyfishes were almost translucent, and it took Neil some moments to adjust his eyes so that he could differentiate the creatures from the water surrounding them.

Just as Neil was admiring the view before him, the water that he 'inhaled' filled his lungs abruptly and he immediately choked on the saline water. Seeing that, Reine quickly grabbed some haleweed in Neil's bag and helped him to take it. "Geez! You should remember taking this haleweed! This is your life!"

After ingesting the haleweed and the cool sensation came back in his lungs, Neil took a deep breath and felt normal again. "…Thanks."

"No problem." Reine replied, "Any case, tonight will be full moon. We should camp here."

They swam around with Reine swimming backstroke style (minus the arms). After some moments, Reine stopped and said, "The moon should be visible around this area."

Neil looked around and found a huge boulder. "Will there place do?" he asked.

Reine turned towards where he was pointing at and grinned, "Yeah! It should hide us well from jellyfishes!"

"I will gather weeds with Neil!" Viv suddenly declared.

Reine turned to the pink dolphin and stared at her for some moments before finally shrugging and said, "Sure, whatever. I'll clear up the place. Just don't get lost."

Viv did one energetic spinning before she tugged at Neil's white shirt and pulled him away. "H-Hey! Hold on!"

The pink dolphin ignoring his protests until they were out from Reine's earshot and only then Viv released the poor guy. "Tomorrow's Reine's birthday!" She suddenly said.

"Eh?"

"Yep! We should give her something!"

"We?"

"Yep!" Viv replied almost immediately before started to swim in circles around Neil. "Weeee~"

"Why should _I_ do it?"

The pink dolphin stopped abruptly in front of Neil and glared at him, "Why? Becauuuuuse Reine is the bestest mermaid ever in the whole wide Atlantica!"

"I barely know her."

Suddenly, Viv turned all puppy-eyed on him—as if it were possible—and begged him earnestly, "Pleeeeeease?" she asked, "There's just this much you can do with flippers and fins…"

Viv bore her eyes into Neil, giving her best dolphin face to the human. Neil, having an innate love for animals, found himself unable to resist the pleading look on the dolphin's face.

_Why am I so weak towards animals? _He groaned inwardly. "Fine."

Hearing him, Viv leaped in joy and pecked his cheek. "You're the bestest human ever!"

"So… what do you want to give her?"

"Umm… I don't know." The dolphin replied innocently. "Accessories?"

"Doesn't she have a lot of them back in the palace?" Neil asked back, "Is she even the type who will wear accessories in the first place?"

"Well~ she kinda have to…?" Viv trailed off hesitantly. "You see, even if she doesn't like it, the handmaidens would just force it on her. You won't believe how long she would complain after each party that I swear—"

"Simple accessories." Neil interjected quickly, while wondering how could two talkative individuals could stick by each other with their ears intact. He began to look around and found a peculiar kind of seaweed with small pinkish flowers growing on it.

An idea popped out in his mind. He had seen Allen braiding Alicia's long hair often enough to remember the steps—and the flowered weeds seemed to grow abundantly in that area that he should not have to worry about running out of materials.

* * *

A kind angelfish had told them that they should wait until past midnight if they were to pluck the flower on its fully-bloomed state—plucking it before would lead the flower to wilt in matter of hours. Armed with that information, the party decided to catch some sleep before the prescribed time. Neil, however, had something else to do.

Although he claimed that he did it out of Viv's relentless pleading, it was easy to see that he was sincere in making the gift for the princess he barely knew. He had his reasons: there was little doubt that Reine had helped him out a lot in the short time span they had spent together and he hated the feeling of being indebted to someone else. While Viv was floating around while sleeping in her own way and Reine was already lying down on the ground with her arms as her pillow—and looked perfectly comfortable with that—Neil was just starting in his handicraft session.

He carefully twined the weed in a way that would 'trap' the flower amidst the weed so that it would stay still.

"This goes here… and this goes there…"

Braiding the weeds was much easier than he had thought and before long, he had managed to make a line long enough to be a perimeter of a woman's head, with the pink flower lined up neatly at the middle of the line.

"Now how should I join this…?"

"What are you making?"

Neil jolted back in surprise and found Reine was peering over his shoulder. "Dammit! I thought you were a ghost!"

Reine grinned, "There are a lot of them in the sea—ghosts, I mean—because lost souls love seas."

"Can you not…?!"

"Any case, what's that?" Reine asked, pointing at the almost-finished circlet of flowered seaweed.

It was then it occurred to Neil. Since Reine had found out about it, might as well did in on her head directly. "I don't know whether it's already past midnight or not, but Viv asked me to get you a birthday present—so here it is."

"Is that a… whip? Kinda short, isn't it?"

"Goddamit, is that the kind of imagination floating in your head?"

Reine tilted her head in confusion as Neil took a deep breath and composed himself, "It's supposed to be a circlet, but I'll have to tie it around your head to make sure it fits."

"Oh, okay…"

Taking another deep breath, Neil swam towards Reine and gently placed the braided circlet around her head and tied the two ends together at the back of her head. Somehow, he made it just nicely—neither to small nor too big for the princess. Once it was done, Reine took it off her head and took a good look at this. "So… yeah, happy birthday—don't think too much about it because it's because of your dolphin."

Reine laughed, "Yeah, she has a peculiar way to get things done her way, doesn't she?" she said, "but, seriously, thanks—you gotta teach me how to make this someday."

This gave Neil an opportunity to study Reine further in his eyes. Alicia, like many of her age, loved accessories—especially those made out of precious stones. Since Alicia was the only teenage princess he got to know, Neil had though Reine—not much older than the former—was made from the same, if not similar material. But here she was, before his eyes, excited over a simple circlet that only took him about two, three hours to make. He watched as she put the circlet back on her head, push it down a little bit to make sure it wouldn't fall off, and she grinned at him.

Honestly speaking, it suited her—the circlet. The flower was of the same shade with her hair, while the green weed was as dark as the usual seaweed. Somehow, it felt as if those weeds were meant to be crafted into this circlet, and that she was meant to be the one wearing it just like now.

"…sure."

"Um… guys, I don't want to disrupt the sweet moment—"

The mermaid and the human abruptly turned their head and saw Viv was looking over the boulder, "—but look!"

Neil and Reine swam to where Viv was and saw where she was looking at. The moonlight glowed on a specific spot and from that distance Neil could see something on the ground, but he wasn't sure what since his eyes didn't work very well underwater. Reine, however, could see the scenery perfectly.

Nourished by the moonlight, the petals slowly opened up and bloomed into perfection.

The Flower of Illusions was right before their eyes.

* * *

_The flower is ready to be plucked!_

_But will things be reaaaally this easy? :P_

_Stay tuned to find out!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! (and yes, this is no formalities... I use the reviews to see whether I'm going on the right track or whether I've done this sequel/adaptation justice... so reviews would be very very welcomed!) ^^_


	10. Illusions and Reality

_teamBLAZE: welcome back! I'm glad to have you here! and thanks for notifying me about the typos, I'll be on lookout for them!_

_Bunnies4ever2: yeay! I'll be glad if you want to read the fic and leave a review there as well ^^ although you haven't played the game (which you should, it's quite enjoyable), I don't think you will have difficulties in following the story per se so don't worry! :)_

* * *

The nights under the sea were darker, and obviously colder for humans' untrained senses. There was no fire, but there were glowing sea creatures that often travelled in colonies in the wild, providing arbitrary light in the waters.

However, in merfolk settlements, especially those that would be considered as the middle to upper class, usually the family would tame these creatures—the species would be either to the family head's personal preference or an ancient convention following the certain family's tradition of which species to choose—to be their light in the night time.

The Royal Family made their choice on a species of glowing squids. The humans would call it, in layman terms, the firefly squids. They were undiscovered, much less known distant cousins to the species that human scientists in our age today would classify as _Watasenia scintillans_, who lived in shallower waters than this certain cousin employed by the Royal Family to be their light. Each person in the palace would be assigned to one, two or even three squids to help them navigate their way in the palace. King Troanes had five to be his chaperone, while the princesses generally had two for each.

The palace assigned one squid to each of the guests and it had initially terrified Alicia who, in her whole existence, had never dreamed of having a squid being her companion in night time. However, after Leighlee's assurance (the two princesses had clearly grown rather fond of each other), Alicia tried to adapt to this new companion of hers and even mustered enough of her teenage curiosity to conduct a night adventure in the underwater palace.

The nameless squid followed her faithfully, staying next to her and giving just enough illumination for the human to be aware of her immediate surrounding so that she wouldn't stumble upon a boulder. Alicia thought she swam aimlessly, not knowing that the current was guiding her. This lost daughter of sea and shore slowly approached an unfamiliar, rarely visited area of the palace compound where no glowing squids could be seen in sight. Alicia looked around; the place was creepy but somehow she didn't feel as scared as she thought she would be. Something in this palace reminded her of home, for indeed a part of her had come from this very same palace without her knowledge.

"Help…"

Alicia turned around, but no one was there. There was, however, something resembling a cave nearby and when she went nearer, the voice getting louder.

"Help…"

_Now THIS is scary!_ She thought before swimming back as fast as she could towards the palace without really paying attention to where she was heading until she bumped into something—or to be more precise, someone.

"Allen?!"

"What happened to you?" Allen asked, "Can't sleep?"

"I… I…"

"Calm down, Alicia…" Allen said, "Why don't we walk together? Er… swim, I mean."

Not knowing what to say, Alicia simply nodded and the two siblings swam side by side. After a while, they passed by the Throne Room, which strangely was left open. Similar to how Alicia was drawn to the strange place earlier, both siblings felt a strange attraction towards the Throne Room. Allen led the way, opening the door slightly bigger and slid inside. It was empty, of course, but there was something that caught his attention.

The trident.

Allen and Alicia swam towards the trident and we wouldn't know what drew Allen to extend his hand—might it be his curiosity or the blood of Triton in him—and touched the golden regalia, causing it to glow in reaction to the Blood of Triton that flowed inside his veins even when he didn't know it.

Allen took back his hand in surprise, and the trident stopped glowing. Seeing that, Allen touched the trident again, this time more softly and the trident glowed again.

"How strange…" he murmured.

Alicia tried the same thing, and she achieved the same result as her brother. "Why does it glow?" she asked.

"I see you are not yet aware of who you are."

Allen and Alicia turned abruptly towards the source of the voice and finally the Seeress emerged from the shadow and let her presence to be known.

"What do you mean?" Allen asked, his heart skipping a beat and chill ran down his spine as he heard her voice.

"What do I mean?" Gwen asked back. "I mean exactly what I said."

"Can you stop being so… so… ambiguous?"

Gwen sighed heavily. "The role of the Seeress is not so much to reveal the truth than to guide the people to the truth itself."

"Then guide us! Enlighten us!" Alicia implored. "What did you mean by your words?!"

"Ignorant, impatient human." Gwen replied coldly as she frowned disapprovingly towards Alicia. "If you want my guidance so badly, leave this room at once and retire to your chambers and regard this encounter as the child of your fantastical imagination."

Struck by the harshness of her words, Alicia was rendered speechless. Allen, seeing no point in forcing Gwen to speak—and not having the willingness to in the first place—led Alicia away from the Throne Room without saying anything to the mermaid.

Allen thought he had left her alone behind. But Gwen knew, the Seeress always knew, that she was not.

* * *

"So… we just take it?"

"I guess so."

Neil, Reine and Viv swam closer to the flower and Neil was the first one to attempt to pluck the flower from the ground while it was still in its fully bloomed state.

"Don't do that," someone said; her voice alone enough to stun Neil. Neil looked up and as he'd thought, he saw his mother: a lady who had inherited Neil with her golden hair and eyes resembling the flesh of grapefruit.

"Mom…?" Neil called in confusion, "But… you were… you are dead!"

"Don't you want to stay with me longer?" she asked.

"I…"

Meanwhile Reine and Viv, who saw nothing, were wondering whom was Neil talking to. More importantly, Reine realized their time was running out and so Reine reached out for the flower herself. Just when she was about to touch the flower, a vision appeared before her.

"Reine…"

Reine looked up and saw a figure that she had never met alive but saw often enough in paintings to recognize her. She had deep purple hair and tail—making the colour of her hair and tail closest to Leighton, but in terms of her face, Gwen (and thus herself) would be the closest imitation.

"Are you my… mother?"

"Yes…" the vision said, "Do not pluck that flower if you wish to speak to me longer."

"Why?"

Reine had often imagined how would her mother looked like in person—having known her only through painting and stories that invariable portrayed her as an exceedingly beautiful and kind-hearted princess who passed on too early and too unexpected that it threw the Court in a long period of mourning.

"The flower sustains me," she said. "Do not pluck the flower."

Reine hesitated for a moment. _But this Flower of Illusions…_ she thought, _Yes! Right! This _is_ the Flower of Illusions!_

"You are not my mother!" Reine declared. "You are simply an illusion!"

With that, Reine swiftly grabbed the flower and plucked it from the ground and surely enough, the vision disappeared the moment the flower was fully separated from the ground.

Reine took a deep breath and glanced aside to look at Neil who was breathing heavily. "Had a vision, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yeah." Neil replied. "Of my dead mother."

Reine smiled wryly, "Well, turns out we're not so different, after all." She said, "I often wondered how my mother looked like since I never got to see her personally, but an illusion would be a lousy substitute."

"…I guess so…"

Neil looked at the flower, now cupped in Reine's hands. The petals still glowed as if reflecting the moonlight.

"So… this is that Flower of Illusions."

"We have to be quick." Reine said, "Let's go back."

* * *

By swimming full speed, they managed to reach the palace in due time and handed the flower over to the King. "Very well, I shall release one of you." He said, "The youngest one."

Reine and Neil delivered the King's word to both Allen and Alicia and as expected, Alicia was not satisfied with the decision.

"Why me?!"

"Duh, obviously because you're the most fragile one." Reine retorted. "Can you be more… sensible?"

"I am NOT fragile!"

"Comparatively so, unless you show me you can beat either of them in arm wrestling."

"Well, can _you_?!"

"Alicia, don't." Neil immediately said, recalling how Reine had wrestled a shark.

"Why are you taking _her_ side?!" Alicia whined.

"I am not taking any sides."

"You are clearly taking _her_ side!"

Reine rolled her eyes. "Look, if you are not being cooperative, I'll just drag you to the surface and left you on a rock or anything like that. You're most welcome to come back, but without haleweed you're probably gonna die soon in water." She said, "Do you prefer that kind of unceremonious goodbye or be more cooperative and arrange your leaving with us?"

Alicia pouted. "Fine! Who wants to stay in a haunted palace, anyway?!"

* * *

Finally—after persistent questioning on her part and finally some buttering up from both Allen and Neil—Reine managed to procure interesting information from Alicia's claim of this palace being 'haunted'. Following her guide, that night, Reine made a trip to find that mysterious voice. This was indeed the less travelled section of the palace ground, she was never really sure why. As for her, she had never set her tail on this section simply because she had never needed to.

After swimming around for a while, finally she found the cave Alicia told her and she waited there for a moment.

"Help…"

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard the voice, but she quickly steeled herself and said. "Here goes nothing."

Reine swam towards the cave and much to her surprise, she found a solitary cell inside. There was only one merman being locked up inside that cell. He had dark blue—but not of the same shade as Gwen's—tail and long white messy hair with uneven length. His body seemed to be so frail that she could see the wrinkled skin pressed against the bones in his upper body while his supposedly translucent fins were dull from lack of proper care.

His blue eyes gazed pleadingly at her. "Help me…"

"Who are you?" Reine asked, holding back her breath.

There was a moment of silence between them before the merman took a deep breath and replied:

"I am Triton…"

* * *

_Triton is still alive!_

_Is this another illusion from the Flower, or is it... a beginning to a ruthless reality?_

_Stay tuned for the next chapter!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: If any of you are wondering why the heck Triton is still alive, no spoilers alert, I'd say that seeing that Triton is son of Poseidon (both mythology-wise and Disney-wise) and Amphitrite (in myths) and Athena (in Disney), that makes him AT LEAST a demigod, so expect some pretty long life, yeah?_**

**_Any more reason? I'm afraid you gotta need to wait for that :)_**


	11. Awakening and Revelation

_Hey guys, thanks for reading and the reviews, although more reviews are always welcomed! I really like to read your thoughts on the story and everything :)_

_Any case, now is the time for a lil bit of history..._

* * *

"…Triton?" Reine repeated in disbelief.

She had found his name in some old documents, written in Classical Atlantean languages. She was not supposed to be able to read it, for the language was not taught in the palace's classroom, but she could since the orcas—who had practically adopted her to their pod—taught the language to her.

_The Ballad of Triton the Just_, an epic written in the almost extinct language, was one of Reine's favourite literary works. She had read it so many times that she could remember the verses by heart. It was a ballad detailing the life of a great king, known as King Triton the Just. Not only a just king, he was celebrated as a loving husband and a nurturing father. The ballad traced his lineage to be the firstborn of Poseidon, the divine ruler of the seas and his equally divine wife, Amphitrite, the mother of seas. When the godly Poseidon decided to retire, he divided the oceans into five regions and asked his sons to choose the realms they wished to rule. Triton, the first born, was given the first chance to choose—and everyone thought he would choose the largest realm, the Pacific Ocean. Much to everyone surprise, however, he picked the choice of Atlantic Ocean, being overlooked by Mount Atlas where Poseidon's old enemies the Titans might still be lurking about, waiting for the chance to attack. Triton knew this, yet he picked it to be his realm since he thought it was his duty as the firstborn to safeguard his brothers and sisters and the realm of their father. And so Triton ruled in the Atlantic, and built the Kingdom of Atlantica.

As a sign of recognition of his right to rule, Poseidon gave Triton a golden trident, blessed with the sentience to recognize the true ruler of the realm among all the other magical properties of the trident. That was, supposedly, the trident that now was placed on display at the Throne Room on its resting place.

Reine had never heard anyone naming their son 'Triton', for the name was so revered among the merfolk, so could this old, emaciated man be the very same Triton the Just, no matter how unbelievable it seemed to be?

"Tell me your name, young mermaid."

His voice was weak and tremulous, and Reine was still not yet fully recovered from her shock in finding such a solitary confinement just at the palace courtyard, where she used to spend most of her time with her sisters—how could she not notice this earlier and why he was being confined here?

"Renaissance…" she murmured. "of Helenian House."

"Helenian, you say?"

Reine nodded.

"Then, you are—"

Their conversation was cut short by a sudden loud sound of the horn being blown, "Dammit! They must've found me missing!"

Reine turned to face this merman who claimed to be Triton and said, "There are so many questions I want to ask you… but I have to go back now."

"Now you know where to find me, young mermaid."

Reine nodded and swam out from the cave as quickly as she could.

* * *

After what felt like eternity for her, she finally could feel the sand on her feet. Completely drenched in seawater, Alicia slowly made her way through the hole on the wall back to the castle. She wasn't even thinking of the kind of wrath her grandmother had in store for her, she just wanted to lie down on her bed, close her eyes and wake up with all of these turning out to be simply a dream.

Her steps towards the castle were heavy, and her eyes were still heavy and blurred from being washed by the saline water. Only now Alicia felt the stinging pain from having salt entering her eyes, and she rubbed them, only worsening the problem. Due to her blurred vision, she didn't realize that she had already stepped into the castle boundary and that her grandmother had noticed her and now running frantically towards her. The young princess gasped in surprise when she felt something was tightening around her, only to realize a moment later that it was Ariel's embrace.

"Thank goodness! I thought you would be gone forever!"

And so Ariel led Alicia back into the castle, and let the princess to take a bath, rinsing off the sand and saltwater in her body and to change into dry clothes before summoning her to her room.

Alicia sat down in front of her grandmother, actually surprised that the latter seemed to be so… calm about it.

"So, what happened?"

"You wouldn't believe my story…"

Ariel stared squarely at Alicia. "Try me, young lady."

* * *

"So, what happened now?"

The human approached her the first thing in the morning and went straight into their business-talk—he didn't even greet her. While others might perceive his attitude as incredibly rude, especially considering his social standing against her, for Reine there was something admirable, and almost adorable, in that straightforwardness of his.

"Well, I'm curious about that, too." She replied honestly, "I think—"

Suddenly, the scenery before her eyes changed. There was no Neil, but there _was_ her grandfather, the King—and somehow, suddenly she was inside the Throne Room.

_"The second quest…"_ the voice came in as distance, more like an echo rather than a voice per se. _"…is to retrieve the Golden Book."_

Then, the scenery changed abruptly again and now she found darkness enveloping her surrounding. A mermaid appeared before her; her hair and tail were golden in colour and just like Gwen, she covered the lower half of her face with a thin veil.

"Who are you?" she asked.

_"I am the Seeress who had come before you."_

"Before _me_? I'm sorry, you got the wrong person. Gwen's your person."

_"No. It is no mistake."_ The mermaid insisted, _"Yes, Guinevere is a Seeress on her own right, but you, too, are a Seeress."_

"Pardon?" Reine asked cynically. "You're not talking sense here—there is only one Seeress for each generation!"

_"So it should be."_ The mermaid replied, _"but when the spirit of the Seeress dwelled inside of your mother's womb, it divided itself into two between your sister and yourself. She inherited a large part of the Eye while you inherited a large part of the Voice."_

The mermaid reached out to Reine and touched her throat lightly. Her touch had a strangely warm sensation, and Reine felt that her voice box was being freed from the restraint she never knew she'd had.

_"Be aware, though, that your power is different from your twin's. She can see the big picture of events that will come in future, but it is you who can see the small, ever-changing details. She sees the constant, you see the variables."_

"Whoa whoa, hold on. Please speak in a plainer manner or else I'm afraid all those things will fall into metaphorically deaf ears."

_"Fate and Choice. The power that your sister holds represents Fate: what she sees will come true. However, in her vision, there will always be blurred areas that she cannot fathom. These are the areas influenced by one's choice—and it's you who can see them: how one's choice would influence the outcome. You are able to see it all… the infinite possibilities that might arises."_

"But how… how could it be? I mean, why suddenly this power conveniently…? There must be something that triggers this!"

_"You are right, Seeress. The Flower of Illusions is your answer. Despite its name, the Flower of Illusions' real power is to bring out the reality in one's being. Being in close contact for a few days while transporting it, the aura of the Flower found you. As such, it awakens the real power lays dormant within you."_

Reine sighed heavily. How ironic it was that she, who used to loathe people who depended on Gwen's vision to make decisions, turned out to be just the person who could foresee the consequences of one's decisions.

"Now, what?"

_"Guide the people to the Truth. That is the duty of a Seeress."_ The mermaid replied, before her face turned grim, _"Beware, though, for Truth can be ruthless."_

* * *

"Reine! Hey!"

Neil shook Reine's body desperately when suddenly she stood limp and her eyes were suddenly branded with a glowing infinity symbol.

She was unresponsive; her stare was blank to the faraway distance.

Slowly, the infinity mark disappeared from her eyes and she blinked a few times. Only when he could see the usual twinkle in them, Neil let out the breath he had been subconsciously holding.

"What happened?!"

"That's a good question: I was asking myself the same thing when suddenly your face is _so_ near from my own that I almost punched you."

"Hey, it was you who suddenly went limp and don't-know-what!"

"Thanks for being so clear in describing my don't-know-what." Reine retorted, before sighing long. "Honestly, I… I don't know what's going on myself."

A maidservant went over to them, "Your Highness, your presence—together with the human—is being asked for by His Majesty."

When Reine simply nodded without much question, Neil began to feel something was clearly different with this mermaid but not knowing what to say, he held his peace.

* * *

The King accepted them in front of the court members. Gwen was there, too, alongside the redheaded prince.

"The second quest has been decided." The King announced.

Neil glanced at Reine, who was staring at the King with an unfathomable expression on her face.

"The second quest is to retrieve the Golden Book."

While the two humans didn't understand the significance of the task, and hence engulfed in the waves of confusion, the King's announcement sent a major proportion of the court into frenzied whisperings.

Only two mermaids did not show any visible change in their expressions.

* * *

_The second quest has already been revealed..._

_and now Reine's power is awakened!_

_How will things go after this?_

_Stay tuned to find out!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_


	12. Stories of Yesteryears

_Hey guys, I know I haven't updated this for quite some time... so here it is! I hope you are still excited of how their 'under the sea' journey goes on! ^^_

_Red: Thank you for the compliment! ^^ I've taken note of the pacing thing and I'll try to readjust the pace for this particular arc :) my grammar is not my strongest suit, but I'm learning to refine them as I continue writing. For Poseidon's 'retirement', I was thinking like retiring to Mount Olympus kind of retiring where he can enjoy life and watching the sea from above :P Since now I'm doing three stories concurrently, perhaps I will only remaster this story when I have more time... and thanks for the offer! (I see you are also writing for Fire Emblem... perhaps you wouldn't mind taking a look on my story there? ^^)_

* * *

"What's the deal about the Golden Book?" Neil asked after they were dismissed from the Throne Room.

"I've heard stories…" the pink mermaid replied hesitantly. "…but the book is a heavily guarded treasure of the kingdom."

"Then why ask a human to retrieve it?"

Reine was about to reply with a dismissive "I don't know" when suddenly the vision before her changed. There were two men, both stranger to the mermaid; one man held the glowing trident and he wore a golden crown on his head, slightly different from what King Troanes usually wore and more remarkably—he didn't wear any bracelets that Reine never saw her grandfather without. The other man was not a merman; in fact, he was more akin to human in his appearance, but yet there was something else in him that wasn't quite… _human_. There was a golden tome in his hand, bounded with green vines.

She heard the second man spoke:

_My son, this tome will keep track of your descendants in order of their right to claim the Atlantean Throne._

The merman then replied:

_Thank you, my godly father. I shall keep this in the Cave of Treasures._

Reine took a closer look on the merman. He didn't seem to be that foreign for her—but perhaps that would be because he was her ancestor since he was the king that came before her grandfather. The scenery changed again before she could dwell on that point, and she found Neil's face in front of her again. She gasped and quickly backed away.

"What the—!" she grunted. "Can you _stop_ being so near to me?!"

"Then can you stop having that infinity sign on your eyes?!"

"What?!"

Neil furrowed his brow. "You mean you don't know?" he asked. "You have this sign—" he made the infinity sign on the water, "—on your eyes twice since earlier."

"Oh, okay. I know," Reine said, "like from five seconds ago 'cos I can totally see my own eyes."

Neil rolled his eyes, still refusing to yield and openly admit his worry for the mermaid.

"Any case, I think I have a guess on what the Golden Book does," Reine said, "It keeps track on who has the right to the throne."

"How did you know that?" Neil asked curiously. "You don't seem to be the bookish type."

"Well, thanks for the compliment," Reine quipped, "but your question begs for a confusing story. Come back when you have nothing else in your head to think about."

"You are never less than confusing," Neil murmured.

"'Scuse me?"

"Never mind," he quickly said, "When are we leaving?"

"Hm… tomorrow?" Reine suggested. "We have some trips to be made on the way, by the way, so prepare _lots _of haleweed."

"Okay."

"You can go with Viv, she really enjoys your company—and I know you prefer cute dolphins than nagging mermaids," Reine said, "Just don't get lost if you don't want another round of my nagging."

* * *

That evening, Reine made another trip to the solitary prison, and the old merman was there. This time, she brought with her some food she managed to sneak away from the dining table and she promptly gave it to the old merman.

"Oh, you are so kind, but I am fine," he said.

"But… I don't see any tray."

The old merman smiled, "Trust me, I am fine," he said, "but I will accept your kindness."

He took the food she offered, but didn't eat it right away. "So… about your questions?"

"I… I don't know where to begin," Reine admitted, "Besides, I have to go tomorrow… perhaps for quite some time…"

"What do you want to know the most?"

"The past story of the sea," Reine replied. "They don't really teach that in class. I mean, they do, but stories of yesteryears are often based on perspectives, yes?"

"Of course," the old merman smiled kindly. "Let see… ah, how about this tale…"

* * *

"Who is this king you say?" Ariel inquired.

"Er… King Troanes," Alicia replied hesitantly.

Ariel nodded solemnly and she kissed her granddaughter. "You must be tired, dear. I think you should sleep now."

"You're not… angry?"

Ariel's blue eyes turned gloom, and Alicia immediately regretted her question. However, Ariel decided to grant her granddaughter the truth that she had kept in her solitude. "No, I am not," she said, "Go back to your room, dear…"

After Alicia had excused herself from her presence, Ariel walked towards the balcony that faced the sea, the world that used to be her home. How long had it been since her last communication with her siblings? And how fared her father?

She still remembered what her father often told her after she became a human when he came to visit her:

_Although you are humans, you and your descendants are still the children of the seas. The sea will heed their call and obey them._

Ariel looked far away, listening to the sound of waves crashing at the wall she had rebuilt in the vain hope of protecting her family. Her memories flew back to Melody and Eric Jr., her children who had met their untimely end at the very same place her father had promised would heed them for the blood running in their veins.

A drop of tear escaped from each of her eyes, leaving two wet trails on her cheeks for a stream of continuous tears to follow thereafter.

* * *

Reine left the prison just a little before the sunrise, promising to visit as soon as she returned from the trip. The old man had provided her with another account of history—not starkly different, but seemingly more complete than what she was taught in class.

At that moment, Reine was unsure of what to make of this… second account—of the perspective she had asked for. Reine closed the door behind her when she entered the room, and once the sound of the lock clicking into its place, her vision changed again—this time, it was of the very same mermaid who had announced her as a Seeress.

"What now?" Reine asked.

_"The present is built not only by Fate, but of the choices made in the past. The truth of the present could then only be explained by looking into the past."_

"That's very convenient," Reine remarked half-sarcastically.

_"Heed my warning, Seeress,"_ the mermaid replied grimly. _"With great power comes great sacrifice. Truth can be ruthless, but you are bound to deliver the Truth."_

The vision disappeared as suddenly as it had come earlier. Now, Reine was back in her room—alone. No spooky mermaid, no echoes, nothing but herself washed away by the amount of truth unrevealed to her—whether or not she wished for them.

* * *

_Thanks for reading!_

_Please rate and review! ^^_


	13. The Picture of The Prince

Reine was often told: "thou shalt never judge before putting thyself into others' fins." She adhered to this principle quite strongly, with one significant exception: the Seeress.

Reine's aversion to the Seeress—or more specifically, her visions—were well known in the court. Many theorized that Reine was simply being jealous of Gwen's power. However, a small—but significant—number of merfolks understood that cynicism of hers was directed not to Gwen's power per se, but the overdependence of many to the visions she produced.

Reine had told no one of her newfound power partly because of that reason, too. She could foresee—even without that power—that if they learned about what she had now, they would confine her in the palace the way they had restrained her sister. Perhaps Gwen could accept it, but Reine knew well enough that she couldn't.

As such, Reine tried to slip away to the second quest as unnoticeably as she could afford to be. She had asked Neil and Viv to meet her outside of the palace just before sunrise before, so that they could embark on the journey without much interruption. However, when she was about to reach the rendezvous point, she saw a certain blue mermaid standing in front of her. Reine was stunned at her spot, prompting Gwen to swim closer to her younger twin.

"You really think I wouldn't know?" she asked, her voice even colder than the water around them. "You should've known better, Reine…"

Gwen raised her hand to Reine's face. Gwen's lower arms were covered in elegant long sleeves that seemed to follow the sea current around them. Not many mermaids would cover their bodies the way Gwen did, but that only increased the worship around this mysterious personage even further. Reine momentarily felt the soft fabric brushing against her face before she felt her sister's skin, and suddenly her vision changed.

Reine began to get used to the sensation. However, instead of one crisp vision, this time she saw multitudes of them, all featuring Gwen. They interjected one another as they liked it—there was no linear story that connected these fragments together. Even after the visions receded, Reine had no idea what had just happened.

She could see Gwen smiling faintly behind her veil. "Your power is useless if the object hasn't reached a decision, or keeping the options open," she said. "As for you, my sister, let me tell you something…"

Gwen's eyes locked themselves on Reine's scarlet counterparts. "…you will give that human something so important to you in this quest so that he will survive."

"Wha—"

"Reine?"

Neil's voice interrupted the discussion. He stared at the two mermaids perplexedly, switching his eyes between Gwen and Reine. Gwen, in a rare moment of magnanimity, offered her hand towards Neil.

Neil knew what it meant. Allen had told him the meaning of that gesture. However, Neil refused to take it. "I will protect your sister," he promised instead.

"Ah," Gwen interposed quietly. "What a naïve being you are."

"Sorry?"

Gwen refused to make further comment, deciding to retire back to her chamber. Meanwhile, Reine swam closer to Neil.

"I can take care of myself."

"So you heard?" Reine asked, confused.

"I didn't mean to."

"No," Reine murmured. "That's not the whole point…"

Reine mentally calculated the previous distance between them before stealing a glance at the human.

_How many days has he been around?_

* * *

The small party swam side by side, and Reine's eyes never left Neil. While Viv seemed to be pleased with what she thought as the much-anticipated romance between the two, Neil didn't seem to be even remotely aware of it. However, instead of the longing, dreamy look, Reine was obviously thinking of something hard as her brows furrowed to the point of almost touching each other and her lips contorted to the side and slightly pursed.

The mermaid was so caught up in her thoughts that she wasn't watching where she was swimming. "Reine, watch out!"

"Eh?!"

Reine turned to the side and found a grand structure of a wrecked ship. It had been there for as long as Reine remembered, and she was about to just swim away from it as usual when she noticed that Neil was still transfixed at his spot, looking at the grand shipwreck. There were many missing parts: the sail was torn beyond reconstruction, the mast invaded by dark moss, as was the deck floor. However, even that wild vegetation was unable to completely erode the feel of grandness in that ship. Neil felt that it was not so foreign to him, and slowly it did come back into his mind.

"Impossible…" he murmured.

"Why?"

Neil still gazed at the wreckage in awe. He took a deep breath and ran through another scan across the structure, just in case.

_No, it must be…_ he thought. "Can we… go inside?"

Reine shrugged. "I don't see why not."

The door was blocked by an overgrown moss and the pressure of the deep sea made it hard for them to force the door open, even for Reine and Neil combined strength.

"Let's try to see for another way,"

"Yeah…"

They swam around the ship, trying to find another entrance point. Finally, they found a hole leading to the inner part of the ship, and they swam in. Viv almost couldn't make it, but after Neil and Reine pulled her in, she managed to get in as well with a popping sound as she passed through.

Neil traced the ship carefully and slowly his memories resurfaced. He could easily recall this very section of the ship in its forgotten glory. With that, a certain person came into his mind.

They stopped in front of a large painting that was hung on the wall of the ship. The frame had been overgrown by moss, but somehow the painting itself remained mostly intact that Reine could clearly see the model of the painting.

He was a stunning young man decorated in royal and military honours, as evident from the golden epaulettes and the sash across his body with all his medals. He held the sword firmly in his right hand; the hilt seemed to be gold in colour as well.

Reine took a closer look at the painting, tracing the lines on the face with her eyes. She glanced momentarily at Neil, who stood transfixed at where he was, looking at the same painting with a kind of longing look in his eyes.

The mermaid didn't know whether it was the right question to say, but her honesty gave her the courage to break the silence. "Is he… your father?"

"No," Neil replied. "He is His Highness the Prince Eric Junior, my past master…"

"Ah…" Reine immediately regretted asking such question. For a moment back then, she had forgotten that Neil wasn't a member of a royal family whatsoever.

"But," he interposed with an unusual heaviness and raw sadness in his voice. "Every time I dream of having a father… I do wish he would be just like His Highness."

Reine turned around to look at the painting again. The most striking element of this painting would not be his attire, but rather, his hair. He had the most luxurious red hair, not quite bright but deep, and it was attractively untamed. That combination, together with his attire, gave him the charm of being a dashing young gentleman.

The colour of his hair reminded Reine of the tales that the man in the prison told her. He spoke mainly about her favourite ballad, giving her an alternative interpretation of the long ballad. There was a part that she was particularly interested, though; a part that she had never learned before:

_"Have you ever heard the story of King Triton's seventh daughter?"_

_"Seventh? There were only six of them, right?"_

_"No, there is the seventh daughter," the man corrected her. "She is the one who inherited her mother's beautiful voice as well as rich red hair. Her name would be… Ariel."_

_"Ariel…?" Reine hesitated. "Why we were never being told of her?"_

_"You see, she is… quite free-spirited," the man replied. "After a crazy adventure, she ended up in a place that is both near and unreachable."_

The old merman then recounted to her the story of this Ariel came to fall in love with a human prince and asked a witch to turn herself into a human, unknowingly bringing calamity to the kingdom. After the disaster was dealt with, she returned to be a mermaid and went away from the prince who came to love her as well. The power of their love moved King Triton, who then decided to turn his own daughter to be a human to let her marry the human prince.

At that time, Reine thought that story was meant to be either a corny love story or a cautionary tale. However, looking at the painting in front of her, Reine began to wonder whether whatever that the old merman told her could be literally true.

* * *

_Seems like Ariel had been left out in the merkind's history for whatever reason..._

_Thanks for reading!_

_Please rate and review! ^^_


	14. Reine and Vivienne

_teamBLAZE: well, there are some reasons... but that's a chapter for another day, right? :P_

_In any case, this chapter is supposed to be longer, but when I wrote it out I found out I wanted this chapter to stand alone the way it is, no matter that it's a bit short. I want to dedicate a chapter just for a bit of humour and lightness, and for a bit of character developments as well ^^_

* * *

"So… you are a Seeress, too?"

Reine finally decided to tell Neil of her new power as they travelled. She felt it was just fair if she shared one of her secrets after he told her about how he had grown up without a father by his side. Much to her surprise, he didn't seem to be so shocked about the revelation. And she had thought humans were not believers to magic. "Apparently," she sighed.

"You don't sound so happy about that."

"Well, what's there to be happy about?" Reine asked. "You see what happens to my sister, right?"

"You've been given power," Neil told her. "You can protect those you care about with that power—isn't that something to be happy about?"

Reine held her breath and glanced at the human. He was… surprisingly wise for his rough outlook. It debunked yet another Reine's perception of Neil being an insufferable ignorant.

"If you put it that way… I guess you're right," she finally agreed.

Reine had naturally swum right next to Neil even without Viv's engineering, the fact that pleased the dolphin beyond words. The pink dolphin was, of course, aware that in their current state, a romance would be near impossible unless Neil were willing to ingest haleweed for the rest of his life. However, this dolphin was a staunch believer of the saying "when there's a will, there's a way".

Who knows? Perhaps Neil could turn to a merman after all these quests?

Viv imagined the moment these two creatures she fancied confessed to each other; the murmurings of "I love you" and "I love you too", the enjoinment of their bodies as they melted into an embrace, and of course the kiss.

Viv squealed. Reine's first kiss would be soooo romantic if it happened the way she imagined it to be. She had heard that mermaid's kiss had magic in it when given to a human, but she didn't know what exactly the magic was.

_BY AMPHITRITE MAYBE NEIL WILL TURN INTO A MERMAN AFTER THEY SHARED THAT TRUE LOVE'S KISS?!_

Viv squealed even louder; she even somersaulted in excitement. Reine and Neil turned towards the dolphin. "What the hell is going on with you?"

The dolphin grinned sheepishly.

"Thinking about Viserys?" Reine guessed.

"NO!" Viv shook her head frantically. "I hate that dolphin!"

Reine shrugged. "People say hate and love has a very fine line between them."

"Nuooooo!" she cried out. "He's so condescending, cold, heartless, insesi—"

"Insensitive jerk who happens to have very fine eyes and nice tune when he whistles," Reine joined in. "Don't lie to me. I heard you saying that in your sleep."

"I DID?!"

Reine grinned. "You didn't," she said mischievously. "But I guess I was correct in guessing that, looking at your reaction. You dolt-phin."

"REINE, HOW DARE YOU!"

Reine laughed as she launched into a sprint and the pink dolphin quickly chased the mermaid. Neil watched their interactions and he couldn't suppress a small smile. They did have an interesting, lively dynamic.

Perhaps him helping the stranded Viv and his meeting with Reine soon after had a certain connection, after all. He saw them struggling against each other, circling like mad in the water until they spent quite an amount of energy.

"What's our next stop?" Viv asked excitedly after they rested for a while and began moving again.

"I was thinking of visiting the deep-water settlement from the other time," Reine replied. "To see how the folks are holding up."

"Despite your sassy attitude, you do care, huh?" Neil retorted.

"Being sassy is not equivalent to be uncaring, you dolt," she quipped back.

"She calls people she likes 'dolt'—she's a dolt that way," Viv whispered from the other side.

"What are you saying?"

Viv jerked up and grinned sheepishly. "No. Nothing!"

Reine rolled her eyes, but she let the matter aside. "Don't forget your haleweed," she told Neil.

"Is there any other way I can breath underwater without that weed?" Neil asked. "What if the effect wears off when I'm asleep?"

Viv then remembered—perhaps the mermaid's kiss would solve the problem?

"There is the mermaid's—"

Reine shut her mouth by gripping her beak tightly. "No!" her cheeks flushed red. "All the more reason you have to eat your haleweed before you go to sleep!"

She remembered Gwen told her that she would give something important to Neil. She was determined in not making that vision reality.

_There's no way I'm giving my first kiss to this guy!_

* * *

_Will Viv's fantasy of hooking Reine and Neil up become true?_

_Stay tuned for the next chapter!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review ^^_

**_A/N: just to clarify, the Mermaid's Kiss will grant a human the ability to breathe underwater until they resurface. Obviously more convenient than the haleweed. :P_**


	15. One and One

Gwen was writing something on a large tome—large enough to completely cover her face, only leaving a small part of her head to observers from the other side—when he passed by. She seemed to be engrossed in whatever she was writing, and that was when he noticed the ever-faithful Viserys hovering nearby.

"Her Highness is recording her visions." Ever since their last encounter, after he had mistakenly thought the prince was harassing his mistress while the opposite was true, Viserys had tried to warm up to the human. Allen noticed and appreciated his efforts by engaging him in conversations when possible.

"Some visions are not specific to certain subjects and Her Highness' visions are not time-bound," the dolphin further explained. "Such visions will be recorded for future references."

"You know her very well, don't you?" he asked. "It seems to me that you know her even better than her own family."

His question led the dolphin to recall his first meeting with the mermaid. He was casted out by his pod after losing a fight with another member, and he was almost sure that he was going to die from the wounds. It was then the princess came and nursed his wounds. After he was fully healed, three days later, she asked him whether he wanted to stay with her.

_"Outcasts should stay together… it is easier when you know there's someone who will let you in, right?"_

"It takes one to know one."

Gwen's soft voice interjected their conversation. Both of them turned to find the princess was already standing between them. Gwen directed her ice-cold gaze towards Allen. However, somehow today that gaze didn't seem to be as icy as it used to be.

"Anything you need from me?" her voice was still formal, though.

"…Nothing in particular."

"You are concerned about your brother," Gwen pointed out.

Instinctively, Allen knew Gwen was referring to Neil. "Damned if I'm not," he admitted. "He does it for me, although I'm more than capable to do it myself—being the man I am."

Gwen took another look at the human prince. "Being the man you are…" she echoed.

Somehow, when that statement rolled back to him from her tongue, it felt utterly different. She stripped the statement from its inherent pride, yet it was not turned into an insult as well.

Just like everything else the Seeress said, it became a statement of fact.

* * *

Reine was singing throughout the course of their noticeably more laid-back journey, erasing the silence that would otherwise reign over the small party. Her voice was just like the sea in its entirety: thunderous wave at the beginning, calmer currents as you delved deeper. Whichever part you stepped on, you would get washed away just the same.

Neil felt like she was buying time but he couldn't understand why. Why should they go to that deep-water settlement? And why she was taking her own sweet time as if they had the whole time in the world?

Unbeknowst to him, Reine had been waving her hand in front of his face as he was dwelling in his head. Finally losing her patience, Reine slapped him using her tail. The force of that slap was softened by the water resistance around them, reducing it to something more akin to a caress than a slap per se, but it still did its office nonetheless.

"What was that for?!"

"Bursting bubbles in your head," Reine quipped. "We're going to see Mama Orca first."

"What for?! Why?!" Neil finally burst out, unable to dam his emotions any further. "You think we have all the time in the world? Maybe you do, but I don't!" He went even further. "This is my job and head on the line, princess—the faster I get Allen back to the surface, the higher probability they wouldn't cut me off when _I_ get back!"

"You think I don't know that?" Her voice raised by half an octave, her scarlet eyes glowered at him as if she could light a fire with that glare. "We have different priorities."

"What the hell you're even talking a—"

He was interrupted when he saw her suddenly turned stiff. That ever-so-familiar infinity symbol slowly surfaced on her eyes, branding them. This time, it was shorter than the other two, but she woke up violently from her trance and she immediately burst into a sprint.

Viv and Neil immediately chased her. "Reine! What happened?!" Viv tried to ask in between panting for dear life.

"Can't explain now!"

* * *

She rushed, without stopping, to the deep-water settlement she said she wanted to visit earlier (before the Mama Orca). However, instead of rows of thatched shelter made from hardened corals and wild weeds, this time Neil saw chaos and bubbles everywhere.

Reine was struck silent. She was too late.

"Oh, no…" Viv lamented.

Reine skimmed the place carefully for any survivor. Her hope began to dim as she could only see crushed corals and weeds floating aimlessly on the water, released from the knots that held them together. However, her eyes then noticed a figure of a young merchildren with gray tail.

"Mika!" Reine called.

The mergirl turned her head at the call of her name, and when she saw Reine, she smiled. "Rei…ne…" she called back meekly.

Reine rushed over to her side and realized that she was even paler than she usually was. There was no superficial wounds, but her paleness suggested bleeding still.

_Internal haemorrage, _Neil concluded inwardly.

Reine must've come to the same conclusion, as she gently took the little mergirl into her arms and cradled her. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I should've come faster…"

"Reine…" Mika's voice came just slightly louder than a mere whisper as her strength faded out. "I wonder… how it feels… on the surface. You told me… a lot…"

"You wanna go up and see?" Reine offered.

Mika nodded against her embrace and Reine tightened her arms around the mergirl protectively.

Neil and Viv followed without any question as Reine began to surface. The sun's kiss used to be a friend of his skin, but it felt foreign to him when he felt it again. Like a lover from a whirlwind summer romance that had changed throughout the three seasons they were separated.

Mika, unaccustomed to the intense light, winced her eyes. However, her eyes still greedily devoured the new sight before them. It was then she felt a warm drop of water on her cheek. She then looked up to Reine, who was still holding onto her. There were droplets of water trickling down her face, but there were two obvious trails—one below each eye. "Reine…"

"…are you crying…?"

"No," she immediately replied. "It's just the seawater."

"…they said… tears are salty, too…"

Reine couldn't suppress a chuckle. Mika knew many interesting trivias which she exchanged with stories from the shallower waters where the fishes were more colourful and gentler.

"Reine…"

"Yes?"

"They said… merfolk will dissolve when they die…" the little mergirl tightened her arms around Reine. "…then I guess… I'll go to shallow waters…"

"You really should," she agreed.

"It's agreed then," Mika replied cheerfully, as her body started to dissolve into the water as seafoam. "Thank you, Reine…"

It started from her fins, then it travelled up until Reine was holding nothing but empty air. Her body trembled as she clenched the empty air, trying to catch the essence of the newly departed mergirl.

There was nothing, of course.

* * *

She was sitting alone on a rock underwater. She hadn't said a word ever since Mika's passing, and Viv's was at her wits' end with Reine (her fear of awakening Reine's grief-induced wrath was partly a factor, too). As counter-intuitive as it might sound, Neil decided to give it a try and Viv was more than happy to let him. Their earlier argument was now so petty when he looked at her lacklustre eyes, looking more maroon than scarlet. Besides, those eyes had reopened an old wound in him—the moment when his mother was struck by a horse carriage and died in front of him. He saw the carriage coming, shouted at his mother, but still… it was no use.

It was so easy to know one when you were one, too.

Neil, not knowing what to say, decided to sit in front of her vision field. She looked with an empty gaze at him that he began to wonder whether she was aware of his presence at all.

"…I saw it," she murmured. "Those hungry sharks… they just attacked that place."

Neil could see her tears began to flow again, although they quickly join the sea as soon as they left her eyes.

"Perhaps the sea is built on mermaids' tears…" she remarked with a failed attempt to sound light-hearted about it.

"It's okay to… cry."

"You told me I could protect those I care about with my power," Reine said. "But… the opposite just happened. I saw it, but couldn't do anything about it. She slips right through my fingers, Neil—and she still has so many years before her."

Neil braved himself to swim closer to the mermaid. "Sometimes… things happen no matter how we don't want it to."

"Then, what the use of Seeress? Just let Fate has its roll, then."

"You told me you see choices, right?" he reminded her; her display of vulnerability allowed his gentler side to surface. "Then, perhaps it's not as bad."

"Show me."

Neither of them could fathom what had possessed them. However, when Neil wrapped his arms around Reine and pulled her to him, or when Reine felt the warmth of his skin and the caress of his shirt, or when he put a hand on her had and stroke it gently and soothingly like he would do to a stranded dolphin, or when she decided to wrap her own arms around his lean body, they knew it was no matter of Fate.

* * *

_What will happen next?_

_Stay tuned to find out!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: This chapter basically shows the limitation to Gwen and Reine's power. Gwen is forced to see the continuum of time as Fate wishes to reveal, while Reine, although seemingly more relevant to the present need, is powerless to change many things despite knowing it's coming._**


	16. The Lineage Drawn

_There's a song that's inside of my soul_

_It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again_

_I'm awake in the infinite cold_

_But you sing to me_

_Over and over and over again_

Allen stopped on his track. He then moved closer to the source of the voice, only to find Gwen, alone in her chamber. Her eyes were closed, and her fingers intertwined together as if in prayer.

Her voice had an ethereal quality in it—as if it was another soul singing in her body. Somehow, all the nerve endings in his body were numbed by the sound of her voice. He didn't even realize that he was holding in his breath while a fuzzy warm feeling began to fill his heart. It was her voice, he was sure, that created the warmth in his heart despite her cold aura.

The moment the last note of her voice disappeared into the cavity of his ear, his nerves began to regain what they had momentarily lost. Slowly, Allen began to be able to feel his limbs again, and he took a deep breath. The air, separated from the water by the haleweed in his system, washed away the residue of the paralyzing effect of the Seeress' Voice and sharpened his senses. Even so, some still lingered.

"It will get better with time," Gwen told him.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You know of stories seamen lost in the sea because of listening to mermaids' voice?"

Allen nodded.

Gwen paused for a moment. She didn't mean to tell him that. Why is it so easy to talk to this human? She asked herself. Is it because of the mermaid blood in him? Does that even make sense?

Water under the bridge; she had piqued his curiosity. Gwen gestured towards Allen to enter the chamber. No one would come at this hour for a reading, anyway, so there should not be any harm done even if they were found together in the chamber—provided nothing else happened besides a little bit of story telling.

"Merpeople believe that their destinies are written in their souls. The Seeress, who is given the ability to see into another's souls, are then able to see that destiny," Gwen explained. "Sometimes, Fate herself would visit the Seeress to give her… a vision. It is the intertwining of many destinies at once—impossible to see from looking into one or two souls, yet important to be known. These visions are expected to be announced far and wide, and in the past, the Seeress would surface and sing over the water to call the crowd."

"So these lost seamen… they came across the Seeress?"

"Yes, unfortunately so," Gwen nodded gravely. "It was exceptionally prevalent during the old times, when humans were not aware of her existence."

"Where did they go?"

Gwen's blue eyes grew even darker at the question. "Killed," she finally revealed.

The veil prevented Allen to see her full face, but if he did, he would see the expression of pure hurt and immense guilt washed over her face the moment she let the word rolled out from her tongue.

Gwen gazed deeply into Allen's eyes, trying to distill the merman in him from all of his humanly part. "Humans, the sovereign of the lands… the moment they stepped into the seas, unknowingly they had trespassed into our realm. They did not know of our existence... then, they battled on the water over a realm that is not even theirs to begin with."

"From below, we could hear the screams. We saw the bodies falling, and the blood that corrupted our waters. Sharks are employed as guards by those who can afford it because they would devour these bodies. We trained the sharks to finish these bodies in one strike—it was the least we could do. A quick death. During those times, we believed that humans were… a barbarous race."

"In any case, the Seeress had always been protected in my family line," Gwen continued. "My family is afraid that should humans learn of the Seeress' existence, they would either kill or capture her. Either case, they could not let that happen."

Allen's shock, unknowingly to him, had affected the water around him. The temperature of their surrounding dropped, and Gwen noticed it, but she dismissed it. "That's why, they were determined to kill each human drawn by the Seeress' Voice."

Allen drew in a long breath. "I see…" he finally said. "But, why did you not kill the three of us, then?"

Gwen sat still at where she was. She was still unsure whether she should let him know the real reason of why he was being held here instead of killed right away.

Allen waited patiently, knowing that she was weighing the options. He had learned to respect that majestic, pensive silence she carried about her. He wished Gwen could be more open as a person, believing that she could separate her identity as a mermaid and a Seeress.

However, how could she separate it if she were not even aware of it, for everyone could only see her as the Seeress?

Finally, Gwen offered him her hand. This time, he took it. The moment their skins touched, everything turned dark for the prince and he felt like being pulled out from his own body. He could still feel her cold hand, though, and it became his only tether to whatever remain in him.

When his sight came back, he saw a grand ship floating across the sea. The ship was painted in sea green and golden with a white, open superstructure. The grand vessel was surrounded by merpeople cheering and clapping or waving.

_Eh? What happens with merpeople being afraid and what not?_

A couple emerged to the deck. It was soon made clear to Allen that it was a wedding, but he couldn't help but wonder how could the newlywed invite the merpeople to their wedding.

She wore a pure white dress with sea-green accent and most noticeably puffed shoulder pieces. A sparkling golden tiara was set on her head, fastening the veil that barely subdued her striking red hair.

That hair gave away her identity. For all his life, Allen could only think of another redhead with such eye-catching hair.

_Granny…_

He then quickly noticed the man standing next to her as a much younger version of his grandfather. Except for the wrinkles and the gray hair, he was almost the same with the man who had nurtured his love for the sea.

It was then a merman emerged from the water, supported by a water pillar covering his tail. He held the golden trident in his right hand and reached for the bride with his free hand. They then embraced for a moment, and Allen heard the bride saying: "I love you, Daddy…"

The moment his heart skipped a beat was the same moment Gwen pulled him back to the present time. Allen panted; his heart beat wildly against his chest as if he had been sprinting for the past one minute.

_So the stories were true...?_

He stared at the mermaid before him in disbelief. "You… what…?" his words outpaced his thoughts by at least twice, so they came out in garbled fragments.

"Destiny is a tough business. A stubborn kind," Gwen lamented. "No matter how you try to bend it, unless the gods are in your favour… Fate will have it her way."

"What…?"

"Their marriage is the perfect example of that," Gwen opened her palm and an energy sphere was formed, replaying what Allen had just seen. "The King was initially opposed to it, and there was the villainous former court member… and yet they were together at the end of the day."

Gwen closed her fist and in an instant the sphere disappeared. "I believe among humans there is this story of how all humans share one forefather?"

Allen took a deep breath and nodded. "Likewise, it is believed that Poseidon is the forefather of the merkind."

She touched his cheek with her cold fingers, and her face drew closer to his that their noses almost touched. Even from that close proximity, he couldn't decipher the lower half of her face.

Her eyes were all he could see, and there was something that drew him to them. He could see himself being reflected on her eyes—divided, just like how he felt about himself at this point of time.

"Many would say… you belong to neither race," she murmured, her voice a faint breeze in his ears. "But, hold on to this, prince… for I can see you unite the two races, simply because you belong to neither."

* * *

_Allen finally learns his true heritage!_

_Stay tuned for the next update! Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: the song featured above is Only Hope. As far as my memory serves me, the original song belongs to Switchfoot, but there is a cover version sung by Mandy Moore for the movie A Walk to Remember. ^^_**


	17. When The World is Somehow Shifted

_ToOH: nope, not really. I wasn't thinking of any HM character while creating the two dolphins. They are, however, meant to fulfil the role of the princess' closest companion (like Flounder in Ariel's case). ^^_

* * *

Gwen was different.

In the court, the ladies were more than eager to engage him in any sort of conversation, especially after his father's passing and he formally became the heir apparent of his grandfather's throne. Allen kept these conversations superficial; they rarely went beyond the topic of weather and simply passing of the news from the mainland. Besides, not many ladies were well read for current affairs (besides who sleeping with whom, especially out of wedlock), so it has greatly limited the topics he could explore.

That was the reason why talking to Gwen had been a great change for him—a very much welcomed one, if he could say it. However, he was mindful of whether the lady in question was in the mood of talking, which was why he began counting. As a general rule of thumb, he would not pursue the subject further if she stayed silent for eight counts.

As for Gwen, she rarely handed questions _about_ herself as opposed to simply directed at her. Allen asked what she thought as the most trivial things: her favourite food, her most cherished spot in the palace, her childhood memories…. He didn't relent when she turned him down with a simple one word questions; he would ask another one after a polite interval. Only then she realized how she had been missing out:

She did not really have a preference in food.

She loved staying in her chamber because that was where she could be truly alone (perhaps with Viserys), but that's also because she did not really walk around to find that "spot".

She'd rather not talk about the almost non-existent childhood memories.

Finally, she realized that all this time she had been trying to be neutral too hard that she almost lost her touch of personal preference. It was Allen's questions that helped her to realize it and finally, when Allen asked her what was her favourite colour today, instead of her usual dismissive reply, she told him: "I have never really given that a thought."

His response, to her slight surprise since it was spontaneous, was: "Then, do you want to find out?"

It was quickly decided that they spent the day touring the palace and the garden, searching for as many shades of colours as they could find. Gwen had never really paid attention to anything besides her visions; all this time she had thought that her life was meant to be spent on guiding others to the Truth through her visions. When Allen brought her a handful of flowers, all in different colours, she realized how much her physical eyes had been missing in this world.

"On the land, the colours will vary even more," Allen told her, while picking one of the flower. "They range from a very light—almost white—to an almost deep colour."

It was that moment when she realized that his eyes were very bright. They were steel blue, washed in the warmth that could only be found under the sky, but above the waters. His eyes were even brighter than the flowers in his hand although by Atlantean standard, they would already be considered as 'bright'. They still retained that bright warmth even in this deep, cold sea. Basically, they were the brightest thing she could find in the range of her limited vision now.

"So, milady, which colour you find the best?"

Inwardly, Allen began counting again. _One… Two…_

Still looking into his eyes, she faintly replied: "Your eyes…"

She would never know how much it meant to the prince.

* * *

Dinner that day was the first time Gwen really looked at what was being served. She ate them carefully so that she could really _taste _it. She would then find out that she was pleased with the slightly sweet cake, but not really about the salty preserved side dish. As such, so that the unpleasant passed quickly, Gwen quickly finished her side dish while taking care that the cake would be the last thing she taste.

"I have never seen you picking on your food."

Gwen looked up and saw one of her older sisters, Leighlee. As compared to the other older sisters, Gwen knew that Leighlee tried the hardest to reach out to her despite her status. Her efforts included, not limited to, telling her what was going on in the class (meaning: teaching her, although she didn't ask her to), visiting her during her mealtimes, or accompanying her if they happened to meet outside of her chamber. Gwen knew that Leighlee would forsake Rod's companionship when she was around, and that mattered because Leighlee was really fond of his company.

In silence, Gwen took a bite of her cake, now that she had finished everything else. She slipped a piece of cake under her veil and put it inside her mouth. The mermaid had become so used to wearing the veil at all times that she didn't even remove it while eating, finding her away around it. After she swallowed that piece, she looked up to her sister.

"The cake… deserves to be the last."

Leighlee held her breath. _Did Gwen just talk about herself?_

* * *

"Is there anything that can surprise you?"

Allen came back for another conversation after dinner, and Gwen began to wonder what was so entertaining about her. She then remembered that during their initial days of acquaintanceship, which was not so pleasant, she had warned him to "stay close" if he wanted to survive. Perhaps, this was how he interpreted those words.

"Barely," she replied before Allen counted "Three" in his head. He noted that her response time was getting quicker.

"That is very dull," Allen commented. "Life is great because of its surprises, that's what I believe."

"Hm…"

Allen counted to eight, and when Gwen added nothing to her previous response, he knew that topic was over. However, he didn't want to give up just yet. "Have you ever seen stars?"

This time, she turned her head.

"I bet you haven't," he smirked. "Why don't we go check it out now?"

"_Now_?"

"Well, stars only come out at night."

Of course Gwen had seen stars when her vision dealt with evening on the land, but they were very rare. Sensing her interest, Allen pursued the matter even further. "Come on, before the clouds hide them!"

He pulled her by her hand, leading her out from her reclusive chamber. They were stopped by the guards, and they almost attacked Allen, thinking he was kidnapping the Princess-Seeress, but Gwen finally stepped in.

"I asked him to show me a place."

The guards relented, and they finally allowed them to go. Viserys offered to go along, but Gwen bade him to rest, for tomorrow would be her 'working' day.

They swam to the surface in a relaxed pace, and during all that time, he held her hand. It was funny to think that he was leading her in the sea, thinking that it should have been the other way round, but she didn't mind at all.

Finally, their heads emerged from the water, and for the first time, Gwen saw for herself the sky that was glittered with distant, yet bright sparkles. She then knew for sure Allen was not lying when he said his world was filled with bright things—for even the nights were brighter than the sea. Gwen couldn't look away from this new sight—it was like the sky was brand new, and the world she had known so far was shifted.

She took a breath, the air was less salty than the brine water. It was cold, but she felt warm at the same time. More than anything else, she knew it was _real_. That this was no dream—the vision before her could not get any realer than it already was.

"Gwen…?"

It was the first time he had called her by her name. She turned, and saw him floating in front of her. He was so close, and usually, Viserys would keep him away because she was not used to being so close to anyone else. However, she felt perfectly fine with him closing their distance the way he did it; maybe because he had done it gradually through all the efforts he had been putting in into talking to her.

She did not flinch when his hand reached to her veil and undid its lace. She even allowed that protective piece of cloth to fall into the water, and she kept still, looking into his eyes—the colour that she loved.

Her skin was pale under that veil; her lips even paler. She blended so well into this starlit scenery with that delicate paleness of her. The stars shone her up, enveloping without overshadowing her.

She was still looking into his eyes. He looked into hers in return; her eyes were the deep sapphire blue, darker than the summer sky but still brighter than the night's sky. It didn't give off that girlish sparkles like Alicia, but rather a tempered glisten of a lady who had to mature before her age. With him finally able to see her naked face, a significant portion of his impression of her changed. That eerie mystery lurking about her being was now stripped off, replaced with a newfound awe and wonder.

He touched her lips gently and she didn't flinch. He brought his other hand to cup her face, feeling her wet hair occupying the spaces between his fingers as he brought her closer and closed his eyes.

It was wet, obviously. But at the same time, it was magical and real at the same time; a tender touch of flesh in the midst of a cold night that somehow ignited a fire of a newfound passion.

"Were you surprised?" he asked when their lips finally parted.

For the first time, he could hear her chuckling. She then moved forward, and their lips touched again for the briefest moment before she pulled back and offered him a cheeky smile.

Now, that surprised _him_.

* * *

**_I know it seems that the development of their relationship is very fast, but each break is supposed to represent the time gaps. So, yeah, in real time the relationship does not progress as fast as you think ^^_**

**_On another note, this chapter is written while I'm listening to Tangled's soundtrack: I See The Light. I think this song is really the 'soundtrack' of this chapter! ^^_**

**_In any case, thanks for reading... please rate and review! ^^_**


	18. Dealbreaker

"The Cave of Treasures?"

Finally, Reine and her party managed to catch up with Mama Orca's pod again, and they told her of the next quest. Her reaction didn't conceal her surprise at all, and this prompted Neil to ask: "What's wrong about it?"

"First of all, young man, that place is not meant for _humans_ to visit," Mama Orca gazed at him solemnly. "It is located at the deepest point of this ocean… your human lungs would not stand the sheer pressure of such depths…"

"But…"

"Even mermaids, if not properly trained, will not be able to reach the place," an orca added. "It's a death sentence from the King! You are not meant to return!"

Neil immediately turned at Reine. "Is that true?"

"…well…" Reine took a deep breath. Her next word came out as if it took all of her energy. "Yes."

Neil turned his body around and looked at Reine and Viv. Now, even the latter couldn't mask her worry with that teasing glint in her eyes. It finally occurred to him that they had known of the risk all along.

"You know of this and yet you came along?" his voice was strained in disbelief. "Are you crazy?!"

"Maybe…" Reine nodded gravely. "Or maybe I just want to keep the game fair."

Neil remembered what Viv had told him once:

_You see, Reine is all about fairness. She can't stand something unfair._

But, this was getting unfair to _her_.

"Look, you—"

"We came here not to question my decision," Reine interjected harshly. "We came to see whether there is a way to keep you alive."

"Of course, there is…" Mama Orca interposed gently. "But, surely such methods carry risks."

"Such as?"

That question was the trigger for Reine. Suddenly, her whole body became limp and the infinity symbol appeared on her scarlet eyes. It didn't last for long, but it surely took its toll on Reine's body as when she regained her consciousness, she fell to the ground, prevented only because Neil and Viv immediately supported her.

That didn't escape Mama Orca's watchful eyes. "It has awakened…"

"You knew…?"

"I have guessed," Mama Orca nodded. "From your stories of Gwen's power, I know something is missing," she said. "So… what did you see?"

"Is there nothing else we could do?" she pleaded.

"I am afraid, my child, that might be the best course of action…"

"What is it?" Neil asked.

Reine released herself from Neil and Viv's careful support and sighed long. "Turning you into a merman," she replied. "But such spells are often… irreverisble."

Reine bit her lower lip. "And I don't like Morgana."

"Morgana?"

"She is the sea-witch… the only one who can perform such spells," Viv explained. "And being a witch, she is a bitch."

"That's very elaborative," Neil commented sarcastically.

"Ugh, you sound like Reine now," Viv groaned. "It's hard to tell you about her… you have to see her in tenta-glory and all that."

"Tenta… what?"

"She is an octopoid woman," an orca told him. "I suppose by now you shouldn't be surprised that such creatures exist?"

Neil glanced at Reine. Her usually blazing eyes lacked their familiar lustre, as if the previous vision had leeched off all of her life force. She was looking at him, too, her mouth sealed in silence. He began to think that perhaps, if they had this encounter on the land, he could see her tears.

"Making a deal with a witch… is almost like you're making a deal with Death himself…" she murmured. "No, perhaps death would have been a better relief…"

* * *

Viserys was staying in front of the door leading to her chamber. "The Mistress does not wish to see you," he told Allen flatly. "But, you should head for the palace garden."

"Why?" he demanded.

"You will find your answers there," the dolphin said. "That was what the Mistress said."

Confused, Allen chose to believe in Gwen. As he swam towards the palace garden, he tried to think of something that might have offended her. His heart clenched with an unfamiliar feeling—much more intense that guilt, but not exactly desperation either. Allen gritted his teeth as he raked his head for answers, although he knew he might not find it there.

_Maybe I shouldn't have removed her veil? Dammit. I didn't mean to do that… but… oh shit. Dammit. Dammit._

"Ah, you're the human prince!"

The voice jerked him back to the present time. A young merman, around his age presumably, stood before him with a friendly grin on his face. His hair was blonde of an orangish shade, and his tail shared the same colour with translucent fins.

"Are you lost?"

"Yes and no," Allen admitted. "I know the way to the garden, but I don't know my way around the Seeress' mind—much less her heart."

The young merman held his breath, but a moment later he broke into a fit of laughter. "I never heard someone spoke so… emotionally about the Seeress!" he swam closer to Allen. "Well, not even her sisters knew their way around her. So, no biggie!"

"My name's Rod, by the way," he stretched out his hand.

Allen shook it. "Call me Allen."

Rod proceeded to tell Allen about the sisters, most notably the fifth sister: Leightone. He spoke in a very lively manner, but not discourteous at all, one thing that Allen rarely found in court members both on the shore and in Atlantica. Before Allen had realized it, they were already swimming to a more secluded corner of the palace.

Rod looked around; his aquamarine eyes scanning their surrounding nervously. When he had made sure that not even a fish could hear them, he looked at Allen.

"You are… the prince from the shore, right?" he asked.

Allen was surprised by the sudden change of mood, but he nodded.

"I saw it," Rod claimed grimly. "I saw the trident glowing in your hand."

Allen remembered Gwen's warning. "You must be—"

"I was told," Rod interjected quickly. "that the rightful king of this realm shall be a human of Triton's blood. The trident has acknowledged Triton's blood in you."

Quick on his feet—metaphorical ones, this time—Allen sensed what the merman was implying. "I can't do that."

"They will rise at your call!" Rod urged. "We have been waiting for the Blood of Triton to take up arms!"

"That does not necessarily mean…"

His thought interrupted his speech. Suddenly, it occurred to him that he had intended to go to the palace—but Viserys' action had made it clear that Gwen was inside her own chamber. Therefore, it was near impossible that Gwen would be the person he would be seeing at the garden (except there was some teleportation magic involved, which he was sure there was not any).

Gwen would surely know of this encounter beforehand.

Gwen knew. She was the Seeress, after all.

Allen looked at Rod. His aquamarine eyes were filled with hope, almost bordering to desperation. He didn't know exactly what was going on, what lied under this dissatisfaction towards the current king, and why _him_ besides the claim of him being the Blood of Triton… but that might warrant further research.

* * *

Gwen stared emptily at the sphere floating above her palm, from which she watched the entire conversation. She noticed Allen's hardened expression—one did not need her power to decipher what was going through in his mind.

_Another piece being placed on its place…_ she noted inwardly.

She sighed long and closed her eyes.

She felt warm trails forming on her cheeks, which was quickly washed away by the cold seawater.

She tried to ignore it, but somehow that warmth persistently remained on her skin. _Just like Allen_, she thought, touching her lips so lightly, fearing lest the feel of his touch would dissolve under her skin.

* * *

_What will be of Neil and Allen?_

_Stay tuned to find out!_

_Thanks for reading!_

_Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: Hey guys, please drop by at my new story, The Princess and the Pauper. Like the title suggest, it's an adaptation of Barbie's movie of the same title (and hence Orwell's novel The Prince and the Pauper) ^^ hope to see your reviews there! ^^_**


	19. Trade-Off

_"Father…"_

_"Yes, dearest?"_

_"I had a dream?"_

_"What sort of dream?"_

* * *

Gwen opened her eyes abruptly, cutting the scene short. She knew what happened next, though, for it had really passed. She was so used to seeing for things that were yet to come; the thought of receiving a vision from her own past almost unsettled her.

The silver dolphin swam slowly towards her. "Mistress…" he called softly and reverently. "Reports said Princess Reine and the human are going towards the Cave of Treasures."

Gwen nodded in acknowledgement. "How about the human prince?"

"He spent an increasing amount of time with Young Master Rod going around the realm."

"I see…"

"Mistress…"

"Yes…?"

Gwen saw hesitation was written all over Viserys' face, which was unusual but understandable at the same time. Gwen stretched out her hand and stroke him gently. "Destiny is not something we can conquer…" she added grimly. "…not even the Seeresses…"

* * *

"You—"

"I am, goodness!" Reine interjected. "This is the fifth time you're about to ask me whether I'm sure about this!"

The princess turned around and allowed Neil to look at her eyes up close. "See? No infinity sign—I'm not changing my mind, and I know you aren't either."

They planned to swim towards the Cave of Treasures just the way they were. Mama Orca noted Neil's unusual lung power—and Reine, too had an above average lung power herself. There might be a chance for them.

"The moment you faint, I'll drag you up," Reine assured him. "That's a promise!"

"And I'm here too!" Viv quipped. "Worst come to worst, I'll drag both of you up!"

"She is stronger than she looks," Reine added right before Neil had the chance to ask.

To fill the silence in their journey, Reine began to sing.

_There can be miracles when you believe_

_Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill_

_Who knows what miracle you can achieve?_

_When you believe, somehow you will_

_You will when you believe_

Neil couldn't deny that her voice soothed his nerves, replacing his fears with warmth and calmness. He glanced aside and found the mermaid was smiling at him. Not her usual cheeky teasing grin—this time, it was a gentle, serene smile of reassurance.

Reine stopped swimming all of a sudden, and she looked down. That prompted Neil to do the same. The seabed around them suddenly disappeared—more accurately, they plunged sharply to some sort of black hole that he couldn't see the end.

"This is the entrance to the Cave," Reine informed him. "Anytime you're ready…"

* * *

Gwen faced her predecessor in her inner world. When her powers had been latent, these encounters were sporadic and unpredictable. After she learned the mechanism behind this communication, however, sometimes Gwen could ask for her predecessor's guidance. To others, she would appear as if she was receiving another vision, so Viserys would usually stand guard nearby.

"Will she survive?" Gwen asked.

_"It is not my power to tell you so, Seeress…"_ the mermaid facing her replied. Her tone was, as always, cold. Her voice was really like the sea in its deepest—cold, pressurising. _"You know better than to meddle with Fate."_

"She is my sister…"

_"And she is a Seeress as well,"_ she pointed out sharply, as if chiding Gwen's rare naivety. _"She is the Seeress of Choices—she must know the consequences of her choice."_

Gwen clenched her fist. Usually, she would take that statement and asked no further. Even if she had something bugging her, she would keep it in her heart. This time, however, she found that she couldn't do the same. "How…?" she asked in a strained voice for years of suppressing her own feelings. "How did you do it?"

Finally, that elicited a semblace of intense in the other mermaid's usually placid countenance. Her brows furrowed slightly, and she brought her hand to her heart. It only lasted for a moment, however, before she reverted back to her previous calmness.

_"We must speak the Truth, Seeress… that is our duty." _That was the first thing she told her upon their first meeting and Gwen had believed her with all of her heart. However, this time she couldn't simply accept what was thrown in front of her anymore.

"You brought to an end a rightful dynasty by predicting its downfall."

_"Yes…_ she admitted. _"And that, on its own, was the fulfilment of the prophecy I spoke of."_

"Are you saying that Truth favors the wicked?"

_"No,"_ her golden eyes glazed with conviction. _"The wicked exists so goodness can be known. The world hangs on the balance between these two forces."_

A Seeress who had fully realized her power had the choice when to use her Voice. Her predecessor had utilized it while speaking her last sentence, stunning Gwen for a moment.

Her next sentence, however, came not in the Voice but in a sorrowful echo. A lesson learned the hard way, she supposed.

_"That is the essence of Truth…"_

* * *

At first, they felt nothing as they descended. Neil had ingested another round of haleweed—it's been quite some time since he last felt that cooling sensation that he had almost forgotten about it.

He felt like they had been descending forever, yet the end was not visible yet. Their surrounding grew darker and their source of light was only deepwater fishes who happened to be illuminated as well.

Neil heard them talk something about food and rest—apparently no matter what species you were, the concerns were quite invariable.

He took another breath, but the water came in much more than he had expected, prompting a gag reflex on his part. Instead of stopping it, the water forced its way into his system.

Neil choked on a mixture of water and air.

Salty brine, stinging eyes… his limbs were next.

Reine turned around and found her companion was in dire state. She rushed to him. "Neil!"

She shook him as hard as she could, but he was unresponsive. "Oh no, oh no…"

Reine pulled him up, but in her rush she had forgotten one critical point of ascending: there was a strict speed limit on ascending. Break the limit, your lungs would literally burst out.

Merpeople lungs had adapted to this condition, although they still had to be careful in certain depths that they were not accustomed in. However, for humans, whose lungs were not naturally equipped with the ability to adjust its pressure—that was deathly.

The water around his mouth turned dark and when Reine realized that it was blood, she snapped. "NO!"

She pressed her lips hard to his, ignoring the tangy taste of blood on her tongue. She tried to suck out as many water as she could from him, and at the same time, replacing it with the much needed air.

She only tasted blood, and more blood, and she couldn't ignore it anymore.

She tasted something salty next, but she knew it wasn't seawater.

It was her own tears.

Viv pounded her body hard on Neil's back, in an effort to eject the water out, but when she felt that his limbs were getting colder by each second, she knew it was inevitable.

* * *

Morgana was the King's most trusted advisor. A lean octopoid woman with angular face and green skin like a certain witch of the shore, she was a recluse unless being called to the court. Some thought she had connection with a powerful witch of the shore she shared resemblances with, but no one knew for sure. Her lair was located near the entrace to the Cave of Treasures, and it was guarded by her faithful shark, Undertow, who led the desperate princess and her small party inside.

"Ah, what a—"

"Revive him. Turn him into a merman," Reine demanded almost immediately, skipping all that pleasantries.

Morgana's eyes shifted towards the unconscious young man. Something stirred in her—he was handsome as hell, sure, but she knew there was something else in him… power?

"And you must make it reversible," Reine added mercilessly.

Morgana looked at the princess again, smiling. She glanced at her tail—she was the youngest princess. She reminded her of certain someone… perhaps all youngest offspring did have that… rebellious tendencies?

"I don't have time, Morgana!" Reine demanded, her patience dissolving by each second.

"Ah, of course, Your Highness…" Morgana replied pleasantly, this time looking into Reine's scarlet eyes. "I can perform the spell… but it is one of the most complicated spell in all the seas… surely it has a cost…"

"What do you want?"

Morgana extended her hand towards her. Reine felt the witch's nail on her skin. It was supposed to be a light touch, but Reine felt as if the witch was grazing her.

She immediately knew what the witch wanted.

"Reine, don't!" Viv warned.

"You say… you don't have time, correct?"

* * *

He felt light. Very light. Like a great burden had been lifted from his chest. He opened his eyelids and found a group of angelfishes bundled together, swimming. So different from what he last remembered—dark, cold water and the taste of blood.

_I'm still… alive?_

He tried to prop his body up when he realized that Reine was sitting next to him. Viv was nowhere to be found. He accidentally let out a grunt as he tried to sit up—his back felt so stiff for some reasons.

Reine turned around to look at him, but his eyes were more interested at something else. His legs—or should we say—his new tail.

It was black in colour with dark grey translucent fins. At first, Neil didn't think it was his until he tried to move his 'legs' and found that the tail was moving.

"What the…"

He turned towards Reine. "I thought we… what happened?!"

The mermaid looked at him and sighed heavily. She then moved away from him, and he tried to follow. At first, his tail movements were awkward as he forgot that his legs were basically fused together and he tried to move it separately. After he adjusted his movements, however, he managed to catch up with Reine. "Hey! Wait up!" he called.

Reine turned around and saw Neil swimming towards her. He looked like a real merman, except for his white shirt that was still clinging on his body.

"What happened earlier?" Neil asked.

Reine opened her mouth, but closed it again. She looked away.

"Why are you not talking to me?"

A silent Reine was no Reine—that was what he thought. Her silence was really terrifying him, more than he was ready to admit. He gripped her shoulder and shook her, but she still refused to look at him. "Hey, Reine! Can you at least say something?!"

Suddenly, Neil remembered Gwen's words before they departed.

_"…you will give that human something so important to you in this quest so that he will survive."_

He let go of his grip as Reine bit her lower lip.

Silence.

* * *

_Gwen's prophecy had been fulfilled._

_What will happen next?_

_Stay tuned to find out!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: The song above is Leon Jackson's When You Believe. It's a pretty nice song :)_**


	20. Exposition

_Hi all! Thanks for the views/follows/favorites/reviews! Really appreciate it! ^^_

* * *

Viv came back accompanied by an orca from Mama Orca's pod. She had not expected for Neil to have regained his consciousness, and she really didn't know what to do when she realized that Neil had learned of the situation at hand.

Thankfully, her orca companion took over. "Mama Orca wishes to see both of you," he said. "Please follow me."

* * *

Just like any newborn fish, it didn't take long for Neil to feel comfortable in his new tail. In a few hours, he could swim as well as most of natural born merfolks. If there was any problem, it would be his back; unused to the new swimming style, it became a bit tense, but he was assured that it wouldn't last long.

Neil glanced at Reine, surrounded by two orcas some distance away from him. Her hands were moving everywhere, making gestures that he didn't know. Sometimes her fingers seemed to be hesitant, but the orcas guided her as best as they could.

Looking at her, Neil remembered what Mama Orca had told him when there were just the two of them:

_"Do not burden yourself for what she has done for you… that is the last thing that she wants you to do. Instead, use it, finish what you are here for and continue your life as it should be."_

But, still, he didn't—he couldn't—understand _why_ she would go to such great lengths to assist him. Clearly, this was way more than what he had given her—if there was any at all—in their bargain. Or so he thought.

"Guilt."

"Huh?" Neil turned around and found that the pink dolphin had somehow made her way to his side.

"She felt super guilty for proposing that we try descending."

The two of them then turned to watch Reine learning a new language in silence. A moment later, an orca cracked a joke that prompted everyone to laugh—even Neil himself couldn't hold his chuckle back.

He froze, however, when he saw Reine. Her mouth was slightly open, but there was nothing coming out from it.

It seemed that from now onwards, silence had become a permanent addition to their party.

* * *

Ariel remembered that Eric had warned her against rebuilding the wall, but at that time, she didn't know what else to do. She had thought that Melody and Eric Jr would be very disappointed when they returned, perhaps even enraged, but she was prepared for that. They were adults—they surely would understand.

It turned out that they never came back at all. The bulk of her mental preparation for their disappointment turned to be her shield against the aggravated grief over losing both of them simultaneously.

Now, she stood alone on her balcony, watching the cold wall. Her eyes scanned the concrete structure that stood between the palace and the ocean. Twice, the wall was erected to barricade the two worlds. Twice, it failed.

Perhaps it was pointless, after all.

"Ariel…"

She turned to face her husband and see how much he had changed from their first meeting. His dark brown hair had greyed out, and his skin curled into wrinkles near her eyes and mouth. Just like she herself, she supposed.

"Allen will be fine, dear," he assured her. "And Neil, too…"

"I know," she replied. "I am just… amused," she paused momentarily, turning back towards the sea. The sea breeze, recognising her voice, woke up and caressed her. She didn't know what to make out of it—assurance or another consolation. She closed her eyes and she swore she could hear the sound of the ocean waves in her ears.

"How some things could change so drastically… while others remain basically the same."

* * *

A melody was faintly heard as they swam away from the capital. Soon, a small figure of a red crustacean appeared on a rock, blowing a pipe instrument. "Sebastian!" Rod called excitedly, waving his hand. "There's someone I want you to see!"

The crab looked at him for a moment. "He is Princess Ariel's grandson," Rod remarked, which greatly shocked the crab.

"Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Curstaceous Sebastian Crab the Third," the crab introduced himself in a distinctively Jamaican accent, bowing gracefully. "My grandfather had been the most loyal advisor of the royal court, before that bi—octopoid lady took over."

"So… why did you bring me here?" Allen asked. "Obviously not just for some pleasant introduction, I suppose?"

"Sebastian knows everything about Tritonean era!"

Allen sighed heavily. "I still don't understand why you want me to rebel against the current king."

"Because his claim to the throne, by the Classic Atlantean Law, is not legitimate," the crab replied, putting down his musical instrument.

"Not legitimate?" Allen asked skeptically. "Explain."

"By that law, the rightful king is identified and acknowledged by the trident itself. The trident will glow upon touch by this acknowledged monarch."

"Well, I saw the trident glows when—"

"His bracelet," Rod interposed. "He wears a bracelet made from King Triton's hair!"

"What?!"

"Sir," the crab said. "My grandfather often spoke of the Last Princess and her descendants above the sea. My family, and all those loyal to King Triton have long been waiting for a true descendant of Triton to come back to the sea!"

Allen sighed heavily. He knew he was a prince and someday he would sit on a throne—but he had never expected it to be an under-the-sea throne.

Heck, he didn't know it existed until recently.

* * *

"That is the most ingenious plan ever, Your Majesty!" Morgana cheered with a courtly approving tone.

"However, it seems that he fancies Guinevere over the others," the King rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I had wished that she is kept out from this… affair."

"Why so?"

"I do not enjoy the thought of mixing the Seeress' blood with… some Tritonean."

"Consider, Your Majesty," she lowered her tone and deliberately dragged the word 'Majesty'. "How the Tritonean partial-godly blood would enhance the Seeress' blood! No one—_no _one—could challenge the Throne, ever!"

Her dark green eyes were ablaze with fervor anticipation as she spoke. The greenish aura that seemed to cloak her body in her magical prowess grew stronger as well.

She had thought that being encased in an ice cube would be the end. Oh, how wrong she had been! Her true magical power was awakened—and she was stronger than ever! She was even stronger than her fat sister, Ursula, could have been! She had sworn to pay her debts towards Triton when she was free—and her choice had fallen upon this certain merman—then just a court member—to fulfill her goal.

She kicked Triton out from his golden throne and made this merman the King. The bracelet trick worked wonders for more than a decade—even the most loyal of Triton followers couldn't dispute it… because they _didn't know_ (how ignorant).

Now, who says you need the trident to be king?

* * *

Gwen watched everything—the conversation—through her crystal ball. The vision itself was hazy, but the voice was clear enough for her to listen. It seemed that her preventive measures, to a certain extent, was effective.

She knew her grandfather would not let a Seeress to be married to a Tritonean. His pride over the Seeress' legacy and inheritance in the House of Helenian was too much for him to allow that.

She closed her eyes and recalled the words she had told Allen much earlier in their acquaintanceship:

_If you want to stay alive, stay close. If you want to go back, don't stay close._

Her chest clenched tightly, in the worst possible manner, that her hand immediately clutched it and her body trembled slightly.

It seemed that Allen had missed the bullet intended to keep him down to a lifetime of being a hostage underwater, just like as she had planned.

But that bullet shot her down instead.

* * *

_The truth behind the Helenian rule is revealed!_

_Will Allen act on it?_

_Stay tuned for the next update!_

_Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^_

**_A/N: For those of you unfamiliar with the sequel of The Little Mermaid, Morgana is actually the primary antagonist in that movie while Ariel's daughter, Melody is the primary protagonist._**


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